Teaching Spanish to veterans with psychiatric disabilities: A creative approach to rehabilitation and recovery.

TOPIC

A Spanish course was heuristically designed to serve as a context to bring together components of various therapies and was offered to veterans with psychiatric disabilities enrolled in a psychosocial rehabilitation and recovery center.

PURPOSE

Bilingualism has been associated with enhanced cognitive function and deserves more attention in psychiatric rehabilitation research. Developing opportunities for language instruction to potentially improve cognitive and community integration is explored.

SOURCES USED

Relevant studies were reviewed to inform the design of the Spanish course and feedback was elicited from veterans who took the course.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Dialoguing with veterans can yield innovative and recovery-oriented changes to services, and may increase consumer satisfaction. Since leisure, social, and educational activities can draw from a person's interests and strengths, incorporating elements of therapies into these activities may create less stigmatizing and more engaging forms of treatment.