Increasing Resilience: Strategies for Reducing Dropout Rates for College Students with Psychiatric Disabilities

Abstract

Individuals with psychiatric disabilities are less likely to enter college and, after enrolling in college, are more likely to drop out. In response, psychiatric rehabilitation practitioners have used a program called supported education (SEd) to improve retention rates for college students with psychiatric disabilities. As an emerging research paradigm, resilience offers a new direction for understanding and implementing SEd. Congruent with the objectives of SEd, this article presents ways that resilience research can be used to improve the retention of students with psychiatric disabilities in 2- and 4-year colleges.