Adults

While most of the services Family Life Center, Inc. offers are available to any county resident, the State of Kansas, Social and Rehabilitative Services, Health Care Policy - Mental Health Services has determined that an adult must have a severe and persistent mental illness to qualify for certain intensive services. This is a requirement of FLC’s license to operate as a Community Mental Health Center. Because of this requirement some of our programs are available only to adults who meet the following definition of having a severe and persistent mental illness.

Definition: Adults must meet the following criteria to be determined as having a severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI):

1. The individual is over the age of 18.

2. The individual must meet the diagnostic criteria from the Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association for Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder Delusional Disorder, Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder or other Psychotic Disorder.

3. The individual must have experienced one of the following;

a. hospitalization at least once in his/her lifetime or

b. at least one episode of disability requiring continuous structured supportive residential care, lasting for at least two months or

c. at least one episode of disability requiring continuous, structured supportive care, lasting at least two months, where the family or significant others provided this care in lieu of the individual entering formalized institutional services.

4. The individual has experienced three of the following conditions;
a. unemployment, employment in a sheltered setting, or has markedly limited skills and a poor work history

b. requires public financial assistance for their out-of-institutional maintenance and is unable to procure such financial assistance without help

c. shows severe inability to establish or maintain a personal support system, evidenced by extreme withdrawal and social isolation

d. requires help in activities of daily living such as shopping, meal preparation, laundry, basic housekeeping and money management

e. requires help in attending to basic health care regarding hygiene, grooming, nutrition, medical and dental care, and taking medications.

f. exhibits inappropriate social behavior not easily tolerated in the community, which results in demand for intervention by the mental health or judicial systems.