Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Online First Nr 4: 1–4

Published ahead of print 15 December 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12740/APP/114167

Clinical and Administrative Leadership in Community-Based Residential Programs

Henryk A. Axer

 

Oregon’s Public Mental Health System includes a continuum of small community – based residential programs offering mental health treatment and 24/7 personal care support for adults experiencing severe mental illness. A team of several mental health paraprofessionals working under the direction of the facility administrator and the Master level therapist strive to gently challenge residents to set personally meaningful goals, practice func-tional skill and slowly take charge of their lives in the community. The author asserts that the manner in which on daily operational and behavioral challenges are resolved by the team, affects residents’ lives not less than strictly therapeutic interventions. This paper has a twofold aim: 1) To characterize leadership, organization and staff communication as building blocks of the collaborative, person-centered and strength-based residen-tial treatment; 2) To show how clinical and administrative processes must interplay to create a spirt of recovery and optimism in the home-like community residential facilities.