Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Influences On Job Retention Among Homeless Persons With Substance Abuse Or Psychiatric Disabilities, Russell K. Schutt, Norman C. Hursh

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Job retention is an important psychosocial rehabilitation goal, but one that is not often achieved. We investigate facilitators of and barriers to employment retention among homeless individuals with psychiatric and substance abuse diagnoses who were re-interviewed eight or more years after participating in a traditional vocational rehabilitation program. Most program graduates who maintained employment had secured social support from a variety of sources; personal motivation was also a critical element in job retention and compensated in some cases for an absence of social support. Both the availability of social support contacts and personal motivation influenced likelihood of maintaining sobriety. Physical …

From A Consumer’S Perspective: What Is Helpful For Residents Of Four Bed Group Homes To Maintain Good Mental Health, Ronna R. Severson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The population with mental illness has faced many changes in the services provided to them throughout the years. And fortunately, in recent years there has been many progressions in the field that have made the services even better. This transformation all began with the gradual process of closing mental health hospitals and the opening of community based alternatives, otherwise known as deinstitutionalization (Brunt & Hansson, 2002, p. 611). The main objective of the deinstitutionalization movement was to create more humane services for the individuals with mental illness (Searight& Handal, 1987, p. 8). Through this process one of the community based …

Acute Psychiatric Group Therapy For Hospitalized Individuals With Serious And Persistent Mental Illness, Lindsey Bednar

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to identify group therapy interventions to be provided during a time limited acute psychiatric hospitalization for individuals with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) derived from evidenced-based research.

Research Question: What skills deficits and theory of practice are most efficacious with individuals with SPMI diagnosis served by ISJ Behavioral Health Unit?

Massworks: Quality Employment Services: Where Research And Practice Meet, Rick Kugler, Cindy Thomas

MassWorks Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Providing quality employment services to people with disabilities requires a substantial commitment of time, energy, and resources. Given this investment and our obligation to individuals with disabilities, we as providers must deliver the most effective services possible.

Suicide In The Northern Territory, 1981–2002, Mary-Anne L. Measey, Shu Qin Li, Robert Parker, Zhiqiang Wang

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Objective: To examine trends in suicide in the Northern Territory between 1981 and 2002, and demographic and other characteristics of people completing suicide in the Top End region in 2000–2002. Design: Retrospective descriptive analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics death registration data and data from the NT Coroner’s Office.

Setting and participants: All residents of the NT who completed suicide between 1981 and 2002. Main outcome measures: Changes in the age-adjusted and age- and sex-specific rates of suicide in Indigenous and non-Indigenous NT residents over time; prior diagnosis of mental illness and use of alcohol or other drugs by those …

Mental Illness And Barriers To Health Care Access, Charlene Powell

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Statement of Problem

Access to health care in the United States is major concern, despite the fact that the country spends more per capita on health care than any other country. Individuals with mental illness may face greater access problems than the general population.

Research Question

• Does mental illness predict greater difficulties with access to health care?

Methodology

The 2004 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) was used to examine the barriers to health care among individuals reporting a mental illness diagnosis. Nine questions relating to health access problems were drawn from the survey and combined into an access index. Multivariate …

The Paradox Of Personality: Mental Illness, Employment Discrimination, And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

Both medicine and the law devote considerable concern to drawing lines, that is, to classifying and making distinctions. In medicine, such line-drawing occurs when a person is designated healthy or ill, normal or disordered. In the law, such line-drawing determines who does and does not bear legal responsibility for a given situation. This Article reviews the demarcation drawn by psychiatry and the courts between disfavored personality and mental illness, a dichotomy not based upon empirical science and therefore, wholly susceptible to social construction and implementation. While society may pathologize noxious personalities, thus making them disabilities, it is loath to extend …

The Sympathetic Discriminator: Mental Illness, Hedonic Costs, And The Ada, Elizabeth F. Emens

Faculty Scholarship

Social discrimination against people with mental illness is widespread. Treating people differently on the basis of mental illness does not provoke the same moral outrage as that inspired by differential treatment on the basis of race, sex, or even physical disability. Indeed, many people would freely admit preferring someone who does not have a mental illness as a neighbor, dinner party guest, parent, partner, or person in the next seat on the subway. Moreover, more than ten years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA" or "Act") expressly prohibited private employers from discriminating on the basis of mental, as …

Mental Health Parity And Beyond: Aligning The Public And Private Systems Of Care For People With Mental Illness, Kitty Purington

Maine Policy Review

Maine is one of the first states to mandate comprehensive mental health coverage for its citizens under private insurance plans. Mental health advocates nationwide long have lobbied for such parity. In this article, Kitty Purington first provides an overview of the federal and state legislation leading up to the present law. She then compares current parity provisions under private plans with those of MaineCare (Maine’s Medicaid program, reporting that coverage under MaineCare for individuals with serious mental illness still exceeds that which is mandated under private plans. She discusses

Bates And Olmstead: Court-Initiated Strategies To Implement Community Inclusion Of Persons With Psychiatric And Other Long-Term Disabilities, Theresa A. Laurie

Maine Policy Review

In this commentary, Theresa Laurie discusses the impact of the Bates and Olmstead court decisions regarding the rights of the disabled, and their applicability to people with psychiatric and other long-term disabilities. She notes that Maine will have to make policy adjustments in order to redefine program objectives based on these court decisions.

Police Training And Specialized Approaches For Responding To People With Mental Illnesses, Judy Hails, Randy Borum

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

Eighty-four medium and large law enforcement agencies reported the amount of training provided on mental-health-related issues and the use of specialized responses for calls involving people with mental illnesses. Departments varied widely in the amount of training provided on mental-health-related topics, with a median of 6.5 hours for basic recruits and 1 hour for in-service training. Approximately one third of the agencies (32%) had some specialized response for dealing with calls involving people with mental illnesses. Twenty-one percent had a special unit or bureau within the department to assist in responding to these calls; 8% had access to a mental …

From Correctional Custody To Community: The Massachusetts Forensic Transition Program, Stephanie W. Hartwell, Donna Haig Friedman, Karin Orr

New England Journal of Public Policy

Offenders with mental illness who are serving correctional sentences are released to the community.Without support systems linking their transition to community-based programs following release from prison, the services necessary for their community reintegration are often fragmented and attenuated. Nearly two thirds of all inmates return to prison, and offenders with mental illness face major challenges during reintegration and have an even more difficult time living in the community without specialized, informed services. This article describes a Massachusetts program designed to bridge the transition of offenders with mental illness from incarceration to the community.The authors review historical and recent trends that …

An Identification Of The Core Variables That Assist People Diagnosed With Mental Illness In A Time Of Transition, Robyn M. Martin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study has sought to identify the core variables or factors that are utilised by people with a diagnosis of mental illness in a time of transition. The specific transition involved study participants exiting a non government community mental health agency. The variables of interest are those that assist individuals to cope during this time of change and transition. The specific transition involves participants leaving or exiting from a non government mental health agency that provides community based, psychosocial support. The study topic is located in the context of a formalised mental health system in the process of changing from …

Research To Practice: Unrealized Potential: Differing Outcomes For Individuals With Mental Retardation And Other Disability Groups, Sheila Fesko

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

A national study examined job search practices used by community rehabilitation providers and state vocational rehabilitation counselors. Employment outcomes for individuals with mental retardation are contrasted with those for individuals with other disabilities.

Dually Diagnosed Mental Health Clients: A Comparative Study Of Those Receiving Treatment In A Dual Diagnosis Program And Those Receiving Only Mental Health Treatment, Guadalupe Leon Gomez Flores

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Living With Mental Illness: A Descriptive Study Of Individual Adult Experiences Of Living With Mental Illness In Zomba, Malawi, Ivy J. Lekera

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of mental illness in the adult Malawian context. Using the interpretive paradigm, content analysis was used to uncover the lived experiences of mental illness. This study was based on the philosophy that meaning of a phenomenon is best understood if studied within its specific context and within Parse's theoretical framework. Two to four per cent of the global population share the experience of mental illness, however, little is known of individual experiences within the Malawian context. Much of the literature has focused on the physiological aspects, causes, and therapies involved …

Aggressive Outreach To Homeless Mentally Ill People, Ellen Nasper, Melissa Curry, Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu

New England Journal of Public Policy

Historically, people with chronic mental illnesses have been particularly at risk for homelessness. In 1984, the Connecticut Department of Mental Health (DMH) articulated policy to insure housing for mentally ill persons. One facet of that policy is to increase mental health services to homeless people. The Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health Center has addressed this need through the formation of the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT). This article describes the development, organization, clinical work, and future of HOT. The team is run jointly by the Mental Health Center (funded through DMH) and Family Service-Woodfield, a United Way-funded agency that provides case …

The Pendulum Swings: How Changes In Federal And State Policy Have Affected The Status Of Homeless People With Mental Illness In Ohio, Kim Bryant

New England Journal of Public Policy

Public policy in the problem areas of homelessness and mental illness has been reactive, rather than proactive, for the past thirty to forty years. As a result of this approach, federal and state policies have swung, like a pendulum, from one extreme to the other, taking the homeless mentally ill population on a most difficult ride. Public policies concerning these issues must become proactive, even if it means a complete overhauling of federal and state social service systems. Only with proactive policies will mentally ill individuals, and all people, have the housing, food, and health care they need, and the …

Classification And Its Risks: How Psychiatric Status Contributes To Homelessness Policy, Anne M. Lovell

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines the extent to which psychiatric classification in public policy research contributes to the equation of homelessness and mental illness. Surveys that measure psychiatric status of homeless persons are reviewed to understand whether they contribute to biased rates of mental illness among homeless persons. The relationship between psychiatric classification and the concept of need is examined and alternatives to current classification are proposed. Classification is discussed particularly in relation to policies of segmentation for "single" homeless adults.

A Comparison Of A Mentally Ill Individual's Right To Refuse Medication Under The United States And The New York State Constitutions, William M. Brooks

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Care Policy: Where Are We Going?, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Omb Watch

Gerontology Institute Publications

Millions of Americans suffer from physical or mental conditions that make it difficult for them to live fully independent lives. These are the frail elderly, disabled and chronically ill persons of all ages, and many mentally ill or mentally retarded persons. They need help to manage daily activities, whether they live in their own homes or in nursing homes.

Such care can be extremely expensive, since it often must be provided for many years, even a lifetime. Today, those costs are met largely by the individuals themselves or by their families and by public programs for low-income persons.

For many …

Can Mental Health Professionals Predict Judicial Decisionmaking? Constitutional And Tort Liability Aspects Of The Right Of The Institutionalized Mentally Disabled To Refuse Treatment: On The Cutting Edge, Michael L. Perlin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Stereotyped Image Of Mental Illness And How It Can Be Eliminated, Larry Latham

Honors Theses

One out of every ten people in the United States will at some time be hospitalized for a mental illness. Billions of dollars each year are spent on books about personal adjustment. Mental illness is not something that the public can be ignorant about.

This paper is concerned with understanding why the public views mental disorders as it does, and how a more optimistic perception can be attained.

Mental Disease And Criminal Responsibility, Jerome Hall

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.