The Peer-Managed Small Group Versus the Rehabilitation Model of Treatment of Chronic Patients

The Fairweather small-group model, developed some 20 years ago, has been proven to be an effective form of treatment for chronic patients who have spent long years in institutions. However, there have been no recent evaluations of how small-group programs work compared with contemporary rehabilitation programs and how effective they are with the "new chronic patient" recently described in the literature. In a study of such patients at the Florida Mental Health Institute in 1977, the authors compared matched patients in a small-group program and a rehabilitation therapy program on measures of self-concept, perception of kind and degree of help received, and recidivism rate. They found that patients in the small-group program spent significantly less time in treatment. Moreover, the small-group program was effective in reducing recidivism over an 18-month period and was less expensive than the rehabilitation therapy program.