Serious Mental Illness
Conditions
Keywords
Peer Support, Cost Effectiveness, Reducing Hospital use, Serious Mental Illness
Brief summary
The current study, through a randomized controlled design, will evaluate the effectiveness of peer support, as compared to usual care and to an equivalent amount of support offered by peer case managers and non-peer recovery mentors, in reducing hospital days and readmissions and in promoting recovery and community inclusion among adults with mental illnesses with histories of multiple hospitalizations. The current study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of adding peer support to the array of services available to persons with serious mental illnesses who have histories of multiple hospitalizations and will test a theoretical model of the active ingredients of peer support, focusing specifically on the roles of 1) instillation of hope through positive self-disclosure; 2) role modeling of self-care and exploring new ways of using experiential knowledge; and 3) a trusting relationship characterized by acceptance, understanding, and empathy with conditional regard.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCommunity Connector
The participant randomized into this arm of the study is invited to work with a person trained as a community connector, someone who is trained in Intentional Peer Support but does not have a lived experience of mental illness.
BEHAVIORALPeer Recovery Mentor
A participant randomized into this arm of the study is offered the chance to work with a Peer Recovery Mentor, who is trained in Intentional Peer Support.
BEHAVIORALPeer Case Manager
A participant randomized into this arm of the study is offered the chance to work with a Peer Recovery Mentor, who is trained in Intentional Peer Support.
Sponsors
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Yale University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 2 or more psychiatric hospitalizations in the past year * A diagnosis of serious mental illness
Exclusion criteria
* Dementia or other organic condition limiting ability to provide informed consent
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Service use | 3 months | Via self-report from the participant |
| Service Use | 9 months | Via self-report from the participant |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Community inclusion | 3 months | Measured using Mancini's Community Connections Inventory |
| Psychiatric symptoms | 3 months | Measured using the Symptom Distress scale and the Paranoia and Psychoticism subscales from the Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90) |
| Community Inclusion | 9 months | Measured using Mancini's Community Connections Inventory |
| Quality of Life | 9 months | Measured using Lehman's Brief Quality of Life scale |
| Quality of life | 3 month | Measured using Lehman's Brief Quality of Life scale |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed