Incorporating psychiatric rehabilitation principles into mental health nursing. An opportunity to develop a full partnership among nurses, consumers, and families.

1. Once people with mental illness are perceived as people with disabilities, the field of physical rehabilitation can be used as a metaphor for psychiatric (or psychosocial) rehabilitation. 2. A rehabilitation approach emphasizes the development of skills and sources of support necessary for successful living, learning, and working in the community. 3. The essential components of psychiatric rehabilitation technology clearly are defined practitioner skills and the underlying knowledge about how to use the skills most effectively.