The practice of psychiatric rehabilitation: historical, conceptual, and research base.

With the recognition that most psychiatric disorders are associated with severe and persisting disability and the development of effective procedures for improving the long-term outcome of patients, the term "psychiatric rehabilitation" is becoming routinely used in the mental health field. Psychiatric rehabilitation has begun to take its place as a viable, credible intervention approach, even infiltrating professionals' jargon and administrators' program descriptions. The field of psychiatric rehabilitation has progressed to the stage where its history can be traced; its conceptual base and treatment strategies described; its practice observed, monitored, and replicated; and its future growth anchored in a research foundation.