Rehabilitation of the mentally ill is necessary to improve their quality of life once their active symptoms are reduced.
• In the case of milder disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder, reduction of symptoms improves their quality of life and such patients need not to help rehabilitation.
• However in severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenic disorders, reduction of symptoms does not mean that patient is cured. Such patients develop negative symptoms like apathy or lack of motivation and their cognitive social and occupational skills get impaired. So they need rehabilitation.
• Rehabilitation provides:
1. Social Skill Training: It helps the patients to develop interpersonal skills through role play, imitation and instruction.
2. Cognitive Retraining: It helps the patients to improve the basic cognitive functions of attention, memory and executive functions.
3. Occupational Therapy: The patients are taught skills such as candle¬making, paper bag making and weaving to develop work discipline.
4. Vocational Training: When the patient becomes self-sufficient, vocational training is given wherein the patient is helped to gain skills necessary to undertake productive employment.
