Beacon is a Psycho-social Rehabilitation program. Psycho-social rehabilitation is a process in which an individual client works closely with program staff in a very active way. The process is designed to help clients to develop more satisfying and successful lives. This is likely to mean changes in how or where the individual lives, where or whether they work, their involvement in learning activities and/or their social lives. As part of the process individuals set goals in one or more of these areas, based on their own values. The role of Beacon staff is to help individuals meet their goals by teaching needed skills, helping them overcome barriers to success, and helping connect individuals with useful resources in the community.

Many of our clients have been involved with other forms of mental health care and are not clear as to how the Beacon program differs. Beacon is not a residential facility in the sense that individuals simply live on the unit for lengthy periods of time. The program does not follow the typical model of most hospital psychiatric units, where the focus is on medications and control of psychiatric symptoms. While we understand that these things are very important, we also believe that stabilisation of psychiatric symptoms is only a first step towards a better life.

Being successful in a program such as Beacon will make it more likely that a client will be more successful in their own communities after leaving the program. To be successful, the individual must be willing to participate in the psychosocial rehabilitation process. This means actively working with their individual co-ordinator and other staff members towards achieving their own goals. It also means not engaging in behaviour that is self-harming, dangerous to others, or that will severely disrupt their own ability, or that of others, to participate in the program. Behaviours of this sort would include:

• Suicidal acts or gestures
• Aggression towards others
• Cutting, burning or other self-mutilating or self-destructive behaviour
• Alcohol or other drug use
• Theft or destruction of property
• Threatening or intimidation of staff or co-clients, including not respecting personal space and boundaries