Community Mental Health Journal

With the movement towards recovery-oriented mental health (MH) services, individuals with MH lived-experience are increasingly employed as peer providers (peers). Peers are unique in that they bring knowledge from experience and eye-level connection to service users that enhance the quality of services and humanize MH systems' culture. In Israel, hundreds of peers are employed in various roles and settings across the MH system. However, peer integration into MH services faces challenges. One issue involves the use of self-disclosure (SD) in MH services which varies with explicitness across roles and settings...

Mental health concerns among juvenile-justice-involved youth (JJIY) continue to be a major health crisis in the United States (US). While scholarship has explored mental health concerns among JJIY, and the link to negative life outcomes, there are gaps in the existing research, particularly in effective interventions and models aimed at addressing both the mental health concerns and criminogenic risk contributing to recidivism and other negative life outcomes of this population. In this paper, we present Justice-Based Interdisciplinary Collective Care (JBICC), an innovative framework to address both the mental health needs and delinquent behavior of youth offenders...

Locating specialized mental healthcare services in the neighborhood of people with severe mental illnesses (SMI) has been suggested as a way of improving treatment outcomes by increasing patient engagement and integration with the local care landscape. The current mixed methods study aimed to examine patient experience and treatment outcomes in three Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) teams that relocated to the neighborhood they served, compared to seven teams that continued to provide FACT as usual from a central office...

Given the context, the overarching aim is to identify scientific publications on occupational therapy in Psychiatric-Short-Term-Hospitalization-Units. Specific objectives include: (a) Analyzing the historical development of this research area; (b) Synthesizing existing evidence on the nature of documentary sources on occupational therapy in in Psychiatric-Short-Term-Hospitalization-Units; (c) Detailing the volume of scientific literature on occupational therapy in these units; (e) Evaluating available evidence on occupational therapy interventions to improve functionality, quality of life, and recovery in individuals admitted to in Psychiatric-Short-Term-Hospitalization-Units...

Married individuals and those in committed romantic relationships generally report having better mental health outcomes than their single or divorced counterparts. However, studies of romantic relationships for adults with mental illness have often ignored rewarding aspects of romantic relationships and have focused primarily on relationship difficulties. In this study, 23 adults with serious mental illness in long-term romantic relationships described their relationship strengths and struggles in small focus group discussions...

Individuals with severe mental illness and substance use disorders face complex barriers to achieving physical health. This study aims to explore the barriers and facilitators of primary care access among an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 14 clients and 7 clinicians from an ACT team at a community mental health center in Connecticut. Data analysis followed a grounded theory approach, with codes and themes emerging iteratively during the interview process...

Following the U.S. military's departure from Afghanistan, a significant number of Afghan refugees have resettled in the United States, presenting complex mental health challenges exacerbated by extensive traumatic exposure. This demographic is particularly affected by collective trauma due to war, genocide, and the loss of homeland. However, detailed investigations into the correlations between collective trauma and mental health outcomes among Afghan refugees are limited. This study sought to explore the relationship between collective trauma and mental health outcomes within the Afghan refugee population in the United States, paying particular attention to the influence of sociodemographic factors...

Conducting clinical research in public sector community mental health centers (CMHCs) can be challenging. The purpose of this report is to describe the challenges our research team encountered in engaging CMHC providers in a clinical trial aimed at testing an intervention to improve parent activation and engagement in their child's behavioral healthcare. We discuss the intervention we aimed to test, the challenges we encountered engaging providers, and the barriers to engagement that we identified. The barriers included restrictive inclusion criteria, an ambitious randomized controlled design, a dyadic (provider-parent) recruitment plan, a requirement to record provider-parent sessions, and high day-to-day practice demands on providers...

In mental health promotion, recovery is a process that leads to personal strengthening, control over crucial life decisions, and participation in communities through relevant professional, educational, or family social roles. Co-production, a key aspect of the recovery-oriented approach, emphasizes collaboration and active participation of people with mental health first-hand experience, family members, and citizens. Even though studies on co-production are limited and fragmented, there is evidence that co-production leads to positive outcomes, including improved well-being, empowerment, social connectedness, inclusion, and personal competencies...

The Clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation supports individuals with mental health challenges using a person centered and recovery-oriented approach. Clubhouses around the world have been found to be effective in supporting their member's recovery. However, there is a lack of multi-site and longitudinal studies on the Clubhouse model. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to longitudinally assess the psychosocial outcomes of Clubhouse members across six accredited Clubhouses in Canada. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic occurring midway through the study, a secondary aim was to assess the impact of the pandemic on the psychosocial outcomes of Clubhouse members...

Many individuals with serious mental illness are at high risk for hospitalization or death due to inadequate treatment of medical conditions or unhealthy behaviors. The authors describe demographic and clinical characteristics associated with increased risk in this population. Electronic data were obtained for individuals in treatment at a large Veterans' healthcare system who were at high risk according to a validated model. A random sample of these individuals was assessed in person. Multivariable regressions estimated the effect of numerous demographic, health, and clinical characteristics on risk...

This study employs a phenomenological approach to investigate the experiences of individuals who access services at a community mental health center (CHMC) in Türkiye The aim of this study is to comprehend the experiences of individuals who participate in psychosocial skills training at the CHMC. Thematic analysis of data from sixteen in-depth interviews revealed three main themes and eight sub-themes. Functionality theme emphasizes the positive impact of CHMC services and training on daily life and social functioning...

Research shows that, in mental healthcare, empathy and active listening skills play a fundamental role in the therapeutic relationship. Despite this, clinicians receive little training in cultivating these qualities, and there is a dearth of training in therapeutic relationships and relational care in this field more generally. In response to this paucity of training, a new intensive three-day training programme has been developed called Compassionate and Relational Enquiry (CARE). The CARE training programme has recently been delivered to a number of mental health teams in different boroughs of an NHS Trust and has undergone several rounds of redevelopment...

Mark Ragins, award-winning past medical director of the MHALA Village and long-term Recovery Movement leader reflects upon the progress and disappointments of the last 30 years developing and promoting recovery. He describes the Recovery Model as a true "Thomas Kuhn" revolution built on three paradigm shifts (from illness-centered to person-centered, from professionally-driven to client-driven, and from deficit-based to strengths-based). Since it has always been an outsider movement, it has grown up in isolated "bubbles"...

Individuals experiencing chronic homelessness have high rates of persistent co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (COD), and they often have difficulty with service engagement and retention, resulting in symptom exacerbation and housing loss. This study pilot tested Maintaining Independence and Sobriety Through Systems Integration, Outreach and Networking (MISSION), a multicomponent wraparound treatment approach to improve COD symptoms and housing stability among individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and persistent COD...

This study explored the enablers and obstacles to the integration of traditional medicine and mainstream medicine in mental health services in West Africa. This study is a systematic review conducted in accordance with the relevant parts of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses. Keywords searches were done in databases, and other reference lists were also searched. The Rainbow model of integrated care and a thematic analysis framework were used to account for the factors influencing the integration of traditional medicine and mainstream medicine in mental health services in West Africa...

Youth and young adults (YYA) with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have high rates of co-occurring mental health (MH) conditions. The time during transition from pediatric to adult health and mental health care can be a very challenging, with risk of loss of services leading to poor outcomes. This study aimed to explore barriers to transition from pediatric to adult health and mental health care and services for individuals with IDD and co-occurring MH conditions, by eliciting the view of stakeholders, including disability advocates...

The rise in mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic amplified the need to improve access to evidence-based treatments (EBT) and necessitated changes in treatment delivery and training of mental health providers (MHPs). There is limited information on how the pandemic may have impacted MHPs' participation in training and treatment delivery. This study included 269 MHPs who participated in a Learning Collaborative (LC) focused on an EBT. Qualitative interviews conducted with 15 MHPs who participated in the LC during the pandemic identified facilitators and barriers to training participation and EBT delivery that included social support, technology challenges, and difficulty completing cases following the transition to telehealth...

The Active Recovery Triad (ART) model provides a framework for recovery-oriented care in long-term mental health settings. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the experiences and views of service users and their significant others regarding care and support they receive from teams working with the ART model. Semi-structured interviews were performed with nineteen service users and five significant others of teams operating in Dutch long-term mental health care. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis...

Employment and deployment of peer support specialists in both clinical and non-clinical mental health settings has increased substantially since the 1990's. Peer-run organizations are defined as those led and managed by individuals with self-disclosed lived experience of mental health conditions. Many peer-run organizations promoting advocacy and offering services have been established during the past 30 years. Some adherents assert the effectiveness of peer-run organizations over hybrid mental health service providers in which peer support workers are integrated or partnered with existing community mental health agency multidisciplinary clinical and treatment teams...