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IPRT or intensive psychiatric rehabilitation treatment is a program that trains consumers to go back to school and/or work.

IPRTs probably differ among the different providers of services. My IPRT offers groups titled “Literacy Skills,” “Choosing a Vocation” and “Computer Skills.” These groups were created in the tradition of the original IPRT created at this writer’s alma mater Boston University. The original IPRT focused on practical, hands-on technical training.

In my “Ready, Set, Goals” group, we choose a goal for the week. It might be something as trivial as sweeping the apartment floor, calling a counselor or a relative, or something work-related like completing a step in the process with VESID, a government agency that pays for vocational training and education. A day and time is set to meet the goal. Barriers to achieving the goal might be feeling unmotivated, fearful or overwhelmed.

The next week the group meets again and we report to our peers (other consumers) whether we have completed our goal and if not, why. If a consumer is completing his/her goals, there’s the satisfaction of feeling healthy and disciplined. If he/she is not completing the goals, the problem can be discussed with an IPRT counselor, therapist or psychiatrist, all three provided by the IPRT.

Another extremely helpful group is “Assertiveness Training,” which teaches us how to liberate ourselves from the self-destructive tendencies toward passivity or aggression. We learn to assert ourselves in a direct, mature and reasonable way. As a writer, I learned how to take some of the aggression out of my writing and learned to assert myself on paper by writing about the cold, hard truth without engaging in personal attacks.

Other groups that helped me with my writing and personal life were “Communication Skills,” which include both listening and talking, “Managing Stigma”—stigmas that victimize you and stigmas through which you victimize—“Anger Management” and “Current Events.”

The content of the groups are helpful as are the facilitators. A third element of the groups are the consumers, who learn to communicate and learn from each other. Through the process of mutual help and support, we build camaraderie and community that often impresses people who sit in on the groups for the first time.

Many consumers claim that IPRT has completely changed their lives and as a result, IPRT graduations tend to be very emotional and sentimental events with lots of laughter and tears. Even some IPRT staffers have been known to cry upon leaving for other opportunities.

I recommend IPRT to any consumer who has achieved some mental stability and is ready to move on with his/her life. It is sort of like a liberal arts college: people find themselves there and move on with a new sense of purpose and direction.