Development of a Shared Decision Making Model in a Community Mental Health Center

Shared Decision Making (SDM) is an essential component of recovery oriented treatment for clients with severe and persistent mental illnesses. SDM has been found to be effective in improving outcome of treatment of non-psychiatric ailments, and studies of SDM in community mental health settings are limited. We designed and implemented a low tech SDM program in a non-academic community mental health center and evaluated the outcome on decisional certainty and satisfaction with services. The results suggest that SDM can be effectively integrated with evidence based psychiatric rehabilitation practices utilizing already existing resources.