General Wellness Program

What's the General Wellness Program all about?

The General Wellness Program specializes in treating patients experiencing the active symptoms and effects of long-lasting, severe psychiatric disturbances.  These patients present various behavior problems due to interference in functioning resulting from the psychotic process. 

Such problems include:

• A lack of ability to accurately perceive and respond to the realities of the environment,
• Deficits in the ability to focus attention,
• Verbal or physical aggression,
• Decreased motivation to engage in socially acceptable and productive behaviors,
• Decreased inhibition of socially inappropriate behaviors.  Dysfunctional behaviors, such as refusal to participate in activities and inability to initiate activity or make decisions, may have been reinforced through lengthy hospitalizations.  Some patients may be dependent on the hospital because it has become their primary emotional resource.
  
  

  How does the General Wellness Program work?

  The General Wellness Program is designed to increase the patient’s level of social functioning and cooperation with treatment, while minimizing the effects of the illness.  The focus is on reducing or eliminating significant socially unacceptable behaviors (e.g., striking out, property destruction) and behaviors that interfere with the patient’s ability to interact with the environment (e.g., withdrawal, gross communication impairments).
  
  Performance of minimal hygiene tasks and the ability to use structured leisure time in satisfying ways have secondary emphasis in GWP.  When patients have achieved these basic goals, they will be referred to the Social Learning Program or to the Transitional Living Program for more expanded treatment if indicated, or will be discharged to community facilities.