For many years, psychiatric services were characterized by high rates of institutionalization and a strong focus on biological treatment. At present, aside from psychiatric hospitals, there are community mental health services introducing modern, community-based, and user-oriented services.

Taking this into consideration, the main aim of this poster is to provide an overview of a community mental health service of Lisbon's Psychiatric Hospitalar Centre (E.T.C. -Espaço Terapêutico Comunitário) for severe mental disorders, highlighting its complexities and challenges.

This poster also highlights the importance of recovery which requires symptom remission along with reduce interpersonal and social deficits and improved social adaptation and general life.

For this purpose, the authors portray a community mental health service and describe the results of the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP), a validated scale for the Portuguese population, useful in the evaluation of personal and social functioning of patients, which allows a better understanding and evaluation of therapeutic strategies implemented during the intervention.

Findings may suggest that these community structures may exert a great influence on social functioning of severely ill patients and that the recovery of people with chronic mental illness requires integrated support services. Therefore, the integration of health and social services is an essential element for the psychosocial rehabilitation and the administration of brief assessments with measures of functioning may lead to more focused interventions, possibly improving outcomes