A Community-Engaged Process for Adapting a Cardiovascular Health Intervention for Persons with Serious Mental Illness.

Introduction: People with serious mental illness experience grave disparities in cardiovascular disease risk factors. To promote scale-up of effective cardiovascular disease risk reduction interventions from clinical trials, it is important to involve end-users in adapting interventions to fit the needs of community-based settings.

Objective: We describe a novel, theory-informed process of garnering community input to adapt IDEAL Goals, an evidence-based intervention for improving cardiovascular disease risk factors in persons with serious mental illness.

Implementing an evidence-based behavioral weight-loss program in community mental health centers: A randomized pilot study.

Background: Obesity is a leading cause of preventable death among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). A prior randomized controlled trial demonstrated the efficacy of a lifestyle style intervention tailored to this population; however, such interventions need to be adapted and tested for real-world settings.

Aims: This study evaluated implementation interventions to support community mental health program staff to deliver an evidence-based lifestyle intervention to clients with obesity and SMI.

Scaling a behavioral weight-loss intervention for individuals with serious mental illness using the enhanced replicating effective programs framework: A preconditions phase proof-of-concept study.

Background: Given the obesity's high prevalence among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), translating weight-loss interventions with demonstrated effectiveness is needed. This study describes the initial translation phase of such an intervention using the Enhanced Replicating Effective Programs (REP) Framework for delivery by mental health program staff.

Methods: The Achieving Healthy Lifestyles in Psychiatric Rehabilitation (Achieving Healthy Lifestyles in Psychiatric Rehabilitation) trial intervention was preliminarily adapted to create the ACHIEVE-Dissemination (ACHIEVE-D) curriculum.

Promoting Evidence-Based Tobacco Cessation Treatment in Community Mental Health Clinics: Protocol for a Prepost Intervention Study.

Background: Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent among persons with serious mental illness (SMI) and is the largest contributor to premature mortality in this population. Evidence-based smoking cessation therapy with medications and behavioral counseling is effective for persons with SMI, but few receive this treatment. Mental health providers have extensive experience working with clients with SMI and frequent treatment contacts, making them well positioned to deliver smoking cessation treatment.

Comparing Implementation Strategies for an Evidence-Based Weight Management Program Delivered in Community Mental Health Programs: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Among people with serious mental illness (SMI), obesity contributes to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The Achieving Healthy Lifestyles in Psychiatric Rehabilitation (ACHIEVE) randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that a behavioral intervention tailored to the needs of individuals with SMI results in clinically significant weight loss. While the research team delivered the ACHIEVE intervention in the trial, community mental health program staff are needed to deliver sessions to make scale-up feasible.

Designing Practical Motivational Interviewing Training for Mental Health Practitioners Implementing Behavioral Lifestyle Interventions: Protocol for 3 Pilot Intervention Studies.

Background: Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based, patient-centered communication method shown to be effective in helping persons with serious mental illness (SMI) to improve health behaviors. In clinical trials where study staff conducted lifestyle interventions incorporating an MI approach, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profiles of participants with SMI showed improvement. Given the disproportionate burden of CVD in this population, practitioners who provide somatic and mental health care to persons with SMI are ideally positioned to deliver patient-centered CVD risk reduction interventions.

Scaling Evidence-Based Interventions to Improve the Cardiovascular Health of People With Serious Mental Illness.

People with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) experience excess mortality, driven in large part by high rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD), with all cardiovascular disease risk factors elevated. Interventions designed to improve the cardiovascular health of people with SMI have been shown to lead to clinically significant improvements in clinical trials; however, the uptake of these interventions into real-life clinical settings remains limited. Implementation strategies, which constitute the "how to" component of changing healthcare practice, are critical to supporting the scale-up of evidence-based interventions that can improve the cardiovascular health of people with SMI.