Bernard Pachoud

Person-centredness: Conceptual and historical perspectives

Purpose. The definition and aims of rehabilitation are both topics of frequent debate. Recently several authors have suggested defining rehabilitation and its goals in terms of ‘person-centredness’. However such attempts to define rehabilitation in this way have not occurred without running into their own difficulties and criticisms. Consequently, one may question whether person-centredness is a good candidate to characterize and define rehabilitation. The purpose of this article is to reflect upon the historical background and conceptual underpinnings of this term and their relevance for understanding contemporary person-centred rehabilitation. Method. We conducted a conceptual and historical analysis of the notion of person-centredness in relation to rehabilitation. We ask first whether person-centredness has a consistent and fixed definition and meaning? Secondly, where does person-centredness come from, what is its conceptual history and does an historical approach enable us to identify a unique source for person-centredness? Results. In the context of rehabilitation, we have identified four main understandings or interpretations of the term person-centredness, each of which denotes several ideas that can be, in turn, interpreted in quite different ways. Thus the concept of person-centredness in rehabilitation has multiple meanings. The conceptual history indicates that person-centredness has diverse meanings and that it has been used in a variety of contexts somewhat unrelated to disability and rehabilitation. Moreover, there does not seem to be any strict relationship between person-centredness as it is used in the context of rehabilitation and these prior uses and meanings. Conclusion. Person-centredness has an ancient pedigree, but its application in the field of rehabilitation raises both practical and theoretical difficulties. It may be that rehabilitation might get a better sense of what it should be and should do by focusing less on the rhetoric of person-centredness and by putting more emphasis on the investigation and operationalization of its key conceptual components.

Why is rehabilitation not yet fully person-centred and should it be more person-centred?

Aims. It is a generally shared opinion that rehabilitation is not (yet) ‘fully person-centred’ and that it should be more. For a certain number of authors, this deficit in person-centredness has originated from the important weight of a ‘medical framework’ within rehabilitation. In this paper, we will discuss this criticism and its corollary: the idea that rehabilitation is bound to choose between a non-medical and a medical paradigm, since there is a fundamental contradiction between medicine and person-centredness. In the first section of the paper, we will examine the conceptual history of rehabilitation and question whether this history can really be summarized as a ‘shift from a medical approach to a person-centred approach’. In the second section, we will question assumptions and suggestions that have been made to develop person-centredness in rehabilitation. In the third section, we will discuss what might be gained but also what might be lost by reinforcing person-centredness in rehabilitation. Key findings and implications. (i) The history of rehabilitation is complex with several stages and paradigm shifts. Furthermore, these paradigms do not succeed one another but overlap. It would therefore be erroneous to reduce the history of rehabilitation to merely a shift ‘from a medical approach to a person-centred approach’. (ii) Several proposals of how to make rehabilitation more person-centred are found within the literature. However, none of these appears satisfactory with each leading to theoretical and practical difficulties. (iii) Although person-centredness has unquestionably contributed to the overall progress of rehabilitation, it is not certain that more person-centredness is the solution to current challenges to rehabilitation. Conclusion and recommendations. In some ways, the challenge rehabilitation faces is the need to transpose and adapt a notion (person-centredness) that has emerged from fields that are in fact unrelated to disability such as, for example, clinical psychology. The difficulties encountered are therefore not so much related to the particular dominance of a ‘medical model’ in rehabilitation than they are to the complexities of the concept of disability. We argue that one way forward might be to clarify further the respective role of the medical and non-medical aspects of rehabilitation in ways that go beyond what has been already achieved in either the ICIDH or ICF but which is still unsatisfactory or incomplete in many respects.

Outcome, recovery and return to work in severe mental illnesses

The assessment of outcomes of severe mental illnesses has become recently an important line of research in psychiatry, leading to distinguish different levels of outcomes and a diversity of underlying factors. The focus has shifted from a traditional medical notion of ‘disease outcome’ to a wider notion of ‘functional outcome’, and even to an inquiry about the fate of the person and its determinants. Recovery, rather than cure or remission, is regarded as the good outcome, with its own underlying factors. Return to work, as a vocational outcome, represents in research one of the good functional outcomes. It is generally understood as a sign of social recovery. But may work be regarded as a good outcome in its broader sense, i.e. as a means of full recovery? Several theoretical and empirical arguments are in favor of considering work as a privileged way toward recovery, but this does not mean it is the only way.

Pratiques et interventions de soutien à l’insertion professionnelle des personnes présentant des troubles mentaux graves : résultats et pistes de recherche

Sustained work integration for people with a severe mental illness or handicap psychique in French (e.g., schizophrenia) is an important issue in our society today. Indeed, work is not only an essential factor in peoples social integration but is also a stepping-stone toward recovery for this clientele. Well-defined programs and services related to work integration were developed and studied over the last three decades. Although the work integration of people with severe mental illness has been studied extensively in the Anglo-Saxon literature, the impact of these studies on the traditional beliefs and services in France remains uncertain. In terms of the scope of the studies so far, there has been an initial interest lasting over many years to uncover individual characteristics of people with severe mental illness which would best predict job tenure. Since, studies have been increasingly investigating various supports in order to facilitate the work integration process. These supports can be illustrated as direct supports or accommodations offered in the workplace, as needed, particularly when people with severe mental illness choose to disclose their mental disorder in the workplace. This awareness of the impact of the workplace environment on the work integration of people with a severe mental illness increases the need to find solutions and develop environmentally sensitive clinical strategies to overcome difficulties during the work integration. To illustrate this thematic, in this special issue, we have gathered together studies conducted in different countries but who share the focus on work integration of people with a severe mental illness. To reflect the advancement in this domain, this special issue is divided in three parts. The first part consists of the presentation of different types of vocational programs: supported employment programs, social firms, and hybrid models. Supported employment programs are very well documented in the specialised literature and are recognized as an evidence-based practice across the world to help people get competitive employment. Social firms is an another alternative model for facilitating the work integration of people with severe mental illness but has to date scarcely been studied empirically. Other hybrid vocational programs implemented in Québec (Canada) and France and inspired by supported employment programs and social firms principles, are also described. The second part of this special issue is related to the presentation of two adjunct clinical interventions for helping people with a severe mental illness in their work integration, and more particularly for increasing job tenure: cognitive remediation and group cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive remediation was developed to reduce the impact of cognitive deficits, such as memory or attention, in people with a severe mental illness whereas group cognitive behavioral therapy was developed to change the dysfunctional beliefs and behaviours that might hinder job tenure in people receiving supported employment services. Finally, the third part of this special issue presents two papers on the influence of the workplace, of stakeholders from the organization (e.g., employers, supervisors) and of the work environment on the work integration of people with severe mental illness. The first paper discusses disclosure of the mental illness in the workplace and its positive and negative consequences such as receiving work accommodations and experiencing stigma, respectively. In the last paper, psychological processes during the hiring process are presented to better understand the elements related to discrimination and stigma during the work integration of people with severe mental illness.

Comment améliorer les pratiques et interventions de soutien à l’insertion professionnelle des patients souffrant de schizophrénie en France ?

Getting and keeping a job are not only one of the criteria of recovery from schizophrenia, but are also one of its main means. Indeed, recovery is partly defined by the ability to work. Despite the lack of data in France about employment of people with schizophrenia, it is widely acknowledged that the employment rate of people with schizophrenia remains quite low, and frequently it is only an employment in sheltered workshops, not on the regular work market. International research data show that it is possible to improve significantly this employment rate, with an appropriate support, that is precisely defined by the current researches, and that is quickly spreading in most developed countries. The aim of this paper is to present, on the basis of a broad current literature review, the key predictive factors of the return to work for people with schizophrenia, and the strategies to optimize vocational services. It will appear that there are several ways to improve practices and interventions in France to support work integration. To begin with individual factors of work integration, dependant on each person, the clinical state and the cognitive skills (in a broad sense, including social cognition and metacognition) are to be taken into account, and optimized by means of the association of a finely tuned pharmacological treatment and psychosocial interventions such as cognitive remediation adjusted to the persons specific needs. The other main kind of factors is environmental factors, particularly the kind of vocational support, which turns out to have a major impact not only on job acquisition, but importantly also on job tenure. The most effective vocational services are based on the Place and train model, and even more precisely on the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model, that allows to the majority of people with a severe mental illness (more than 50%) to obtain a competitive employment after 6xa0to 18xa0months of individualized support. This approach is now widely recommended as an evidence-based practice of rehabilitation. It is important to promote in France the development of this kind of practice, already implemented as an experiment by few militant and involved associations. This development remains in France slow and delayed (compared to the practices in the other European countries) because of the lack of public funding. It implies an evolution of the social and medico-social practices, taking into account current research data, and assessing the outcomes of their practices in order to improve them. The employment specialist (sometimes called also the job coach) turns out to play a key role, emphasized by current research, implying, among many other tasks, to coordinate the net of people supporting the work integration, including the clinical team, the employer and the colleagues of the workplace.

Enjeu de la réinsertion sociale après un premier épisode psychotique

Resume L’un des principaux enjeux d’une prise en charge medicale precoce des premiers episodes psychotiques est de ne pas laisser s’installer la desinsertion sociale, ou de s’attacher a la reduire des que possible : ne pas viser seulement la remission symptomatique et la prevention des rechutes, mais eviter ou tout au moins limiter le developpement des consequences fonctionnelles et sociales de la maladie, ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler le handicap psychique. La desinsertion sociale n’est d’ailleurs pas seulement une des principales expressions des consequences de la maladie, elle en est aussi, par un effet de circularite negative, un facteur d’aggravation. C’est pourquoi, a cote de la strategie d’optimisation des soins, visant la remission et la prevention des rechutes, il convient egalement de mettre en place precocement une strategie visant le maintien ou la restauration de l’insertion sociale, strategie au service d’un objectif plus global de retablissement dans une vie active et sociale. Nous detaillerons les facteurs qui conditionnent une telle perspective de retablissement, et la variete des mesures permettant de soutenir cette strategie.One of the main issues of early intervention in first-episode psychosis is to prevent social exclusion, or at least to seek to reduce it as soon as possible. The aim is not only symptom remission and relapse prevention, it is also to optimize the social and functional outcome of the illness. Social exclusion is not only one the disabling consequences of the illness, it is also, due to a negative circularity, an aggravating factor. Therefore, alongside the healthcare strategy aiming at the remission and relapse prevention, it will be useful to set up, at an early stage, a strategy aiming at maintaining or restoring social inclusion, and more generally to support the social recovery. We will specify the factors conditioning such prospects for recovery, and the variety of measures to support this strategy.