An economic development approach

Anumber of innovative strategies that call for new perspectives on the issue of social integration have proven valuable in helping people with mental illness reach for full citizenship in society. One of these strategies is the economic development approach, which posits that people with mental illness wield economic power that can be turned to their advantage, in terms of both creating employment opportunities and improving their social and financial welfare.

Psychiatrist Paul Polak developed a model community support system for people with serious mental illness in southwest Denver, Colorado, in the 1970s. Polak left that position in 1980 to found a non-profit developing world development company, International Development Enterprises, which has enjoyed success in creating grass-roots income-producing opportunities for poor people in the developing world. Polak's work, which led to his being picked by Scientific American in 2004 as the top contributor to global agricultural policy, is based on a concise formulation of principles for designing effective development projects, namely:

• Evaluate the day-to-day economy of the disadvantaged group and the effect of economic incentives.

• Identify areas of the group members' production or consumption that might provide income-generating opportunities. For example, give ownership to poor people of an expensive fraction of their consumption, such as transportation.

• Focus on a single area that will leverage changes in several other domains of daily economic life.

• Market the innovation assertively to ensure broad availability.

Like poor farmers in the developing world, people with serious mental illness in the West are an economically disadvantaged group with reservoirs of untapped productive capacity.