Cognitive adaptation training

CAT is an organized approach that uses what clinicians call “environmental supports”. These are supports that are integrated into the routines and living spaces of people struggling with schizophrenia and other similar mental health challenges.

The supports include a range of tools such as signs, alarms, calendars, checklists, schedules and pill containers for organizing belongings and carrying out daily activities. They are all methods to get around or compensate for some of the thinking and motivation difficulties that can occur with schizophrenia.

The supports we recommend are based on rearranging the environment and teaching skills to help the person get around their cognitive problems and negative symptoms. Through being helped to bypass cognitive problems and find sources of motivation, people with schizophrenia can manage their lives better—professionally and otherwise—and with less support. Applying environmental supports is about collaborating on effective ways of overcoming some of the major barriers that schizophrenia can present, and getting on with a fulfilling life.