Supported education as an empowerment intervention for people with mental illness

Abstract

Many adults with severe mental illnesses experienced disability onset in early adulthood, causing interruption or indefinite postponement of postsecondary education. Supported education programs are a recent innovation to assist in integrating people with mental illness, who desire to resume their postsecondary education in an educational setting where they can experience life as a student rather than as a mental patient. This study reports analyses of focus groups conducted to assess the impact of a supported education program from the perspectives of students who graduated from the program. Themes emerged from the data and were grouped under the following headings: problems and concerns, wants and desires, impact of supported education, personal empowerment, collective empowerment, and postprogram supports needed. While the program did not primarily view itself as an empowerment intervention, results revealed that empowerment did occur and contributed to the intervention's emphasis on self-awareness, group support, and advocacy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.