Toward a Fidelity Scale for Inpatient Treatment Malls

Abstract

Inpatient treatment malls represent a service delivery model in which psychiatric rehabilitation is provided in a centralized location and with increased elements of consumer empowerment in state psychiatric hospitals. There is preliminary evidence that aspects of this approach may offer improved outcomes for hospitalized individuals. However, there is currently no agreement on what the critical ingredients of an inpatient treatment mall program are or should be. This situation makes research on the model's outcomes difficult and means that a program can be significantly different in design and philosophy and still be called a treatment mall. This paper will attempt to answer the question: What is an inpatient treatment mall and what are the, essential ingredients of this model? These ingredients were identified using domain sampling based on descriptions found in the relevant literature on inpatient treatment malls. Recommendations for future work in this area are also addressed.

Keywords:

• State hospital
• Psychiatric hospital
• Treatment mall
• Centralized programming

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to give special thanks to Joseph Birkmann, who was instrumental in making sure this article was completed. He was a constant source of encouragement. We would also like to thank Teresa McQuaide, who was very supportive in our work to find these critical ingredients for treatment malls. Without both Joe and Teresa, this may not have been possible. Lastly, we would like to thank our team for being there to bounce ideas off of and encouraging us the entire way.