The promise of residential treatment to support functional and vocational recovery for young adults with bipolar disorder

This case presentation describes how interdisciplinary perspectives can be leveraged to minimize health disparities and improve the quality of life of people living with serious mental illness (SMI). We describe how a young-adult patient with severe Bipolar I Disorder and suicidal behaviors benefited from receiving multi-modal interventions at a residential treatment program with a focus on obtaining competitive employment and independent living. The premise of our model of care is that vocational recovery is an important domain that is all too often overlooked by mental health treatment teams. There is still much to learn about the effectiveness of interdisciplinary residential treatment programs, particularly when comprehensive behavioral health interventions and supported employment are integrated into the care model. Further research is warranted to evaluate the outcome of this model of a residential treatment program for a larger sample of patients with SMI.