Tile Relationship Between the Level of Personal Empowerment and Qnality of Life Among PsychQsocial Clllbhouse Members and Consllmer-Operated Drop-In Center Participants

The history of the treatment of people with serious mental illness is rich and complex. Only through deinstitutionalization in the last 20 to 30 years have mental health consumers, who were long-term residents of state psychiatric hospitals, been given the opportunity to be a part of connnunity life again. Deinstitutionalization is a recent policy movement. Factors influencing this movement included: a) the funding of programs like Medicaid, b) the philosophy and promise of connnunity mental health, c) the introduction of psychotropic medications, d) case law precedents in the legal arena, and e) the psychiatric survivor's movement (Gerhart, 1990). Today, the result is the emergence ofa consumer role in planning, providing, and evaluating mental health services (Dixon, Kraus, & Lehman, 1994) and a move towards connnunity-based care. In addition to connnunity-based services, such as case management, psychosocial clubhouses, and community support programs, a variety of consumer-operated services have emerged, such as consumer case managers and consumer-operated drop-in centers. The clubhouse model has emerged as a popular connnunity-based service for people with serious mental illness, while consumer-operated drop-in centers have emerge