According to the Mental Health Acts of Korea which were established in 1995, the mental health policy was changed from the hospital treatment centered policy to the community mental health management centered policy. Besides, the policy has put emphasis on the protection of human rights of the patients with mental illness, their shorterm hospitalization, social return and the community mental health, and the psychosocial rehabilitation, social return and the community mental health, and the psychosocial rehabilitation for their social return through various supports. These continuous courses of efforts have drawn lots of interests of mental health professional on the community mental health work.
It is a fair argument that the success or failure of rehabilitation and social return in the community mental health relies on less its form and content, and more its methodology; and the methodology is a case of the mental health of the western community(양옥경, 강영옥, 이강, 1998).
This study which is aimed for the presentation of the psychiatric nursing practice trend introduced the concept and the content of services of the community mental health work, psychosocial rehabilitation principles and its components, and social return program, and PACT model that provides comprehensive services and the rehabilitation for the patients with mental illness in America. Secondly, this study, treated the general concept of the case management, its appearance background, its principles and its functions. And thirdly, this study described the case management model and its appliable tools for the patients with chronically mental illness during the case management, and the case management and the roles of the case managers in the mental health area, and also its results.
As the case management is the necessary system in the development of the mental health work, we will have to build up more humanistic and effective service systems that apply case management model suitable for each community characteristics.
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