Examining Severe Mental Illness Across Integrated Service Settings - CIMHRRS

University Of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Comprehensive Inventory of Mental Health and Recovery and Rehabilitation Services (CIMHRRS), is envisioned as a theory driven instrument that will assess the objective and subjective dimensions of the philosophies of recovery and rehabilitation. Complete development of the CIMHRRS is a longer-term program of research, continuing beyond the applicant's predoctoral studies. The project outlined in this application is the continued development, testing, evaluation, and refinement of the applicant's prototype instrument for comprehensive assessment of programs that provide integrated services to people with a serious mental illness (SMI). The specific objectives of this project are 1) ensure complete content validity through consultation with experts on specific evidence-based practice modalities and psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery from SMI,2) ensure that the feasibility and interrater reliability can be maintained as content validation proceeds, and 3) test the instrument in a broader variety of programs and SMI service settings. To accomplish these multiple objectives, the project will utilize a combination of principles and methods, associated with psychometric scale development, field methods, and program evaluation. The format of the CIMHRRS is that of a structured site review, wherein evaluators use the instrument to assess program organization, policy and procedures, in addition to more conventional fidelity and outcome assessment. The proposed project is an extension of the mandates and recommendations for the treatment of people with SMI as outlined in the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) and the Surgeon General's report on Mental Health (1999). This project corresponds with the mission of the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) Division of Services and Intervention Research (DISR) service research goals that focus on services organization, interventions to improve the qualities of outcome care (including treatment and rehabilitation services), enhancing capacity for conducting services research, and the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions into service settings. Unfortunately, program administrators and regulatory bodies have lacked an instrument to measure the comprehensive integration of these concepts into services settings. The CIMHRRS will provide a format in which those mandates can be systematically measured, subjecting the concepts of recovery and rehabilitation to scientific rigor; providing a useful yet meaningful instrument to compare SMI service programs. This project is expected to serve the purposes of both services research (e.g.characteristics of effective service programs), and program evaluation (performance of specific programs in the real world). [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]