Informing implementation and dissemination of a specialized primary care medical home for patients with serious mental illness: Clinician and administrator perspectives.

People with serious mental illness (SMI) have lower rates of use of preventative medical services and higher rates of mortality compared to the general population. Research shows that specialized primary care medical homes improve the health care of patients with SMI and are feasible to implement, safe, and more effective than usual care. However, specialized medical homes remain uncommon and model dissemination limited.

Stakeholder perspectives on sustainment of Housing First in a VA permanent supportive housing program.

Objective: To evaluate the sustainment of Housing First (HF) implementation in a permanent supportive housing program for homeless-experienced veterans, 5 years after practice implementation.

Study Setting: From 2016 to 2017, primary data were collected from providers and veterans in the Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program at Los Angeles.

Study Design: Guided by the integrated sustainability framework, we performed a mixed-methods study to evaluate the sustainment of HF, an evidence-based practice implemented to improve housing outcomes.

Community Interventions to Promote Mental Health and Social Equity.

(Reprinted with permission from (2020) 21: 35).

Community Interventions to Promote Mental Health and Social Equity.

Purpose Of Review: We review recent community interventions to promote mental health and social equity. We define community interventions as those that involve multi-sector partnerships, emphasize community members as integral to the intervention, and/or deliver services in community settings. We examine literature in seven topic areas: collaborative care, early psychosis, school-based interventions, homelessness, criminal justice, global mental health, and mental health promotion/prevention.

Resilience in homeless veterans: Clinical and cognitive correlates.

Objective: Resilience is broadly defined as the ability to respond adaptively to challenges or adversity. It is unclear which clinical and cognitive factors are most closely related to resilience. Also, the dimensions that comprise resilience may differ among different groups, such as those who are homeless.

Does mental health influence weight loss in adults with prediabetes? Findings from the VA Diabetes Prevention Program.

Objectives: Mental illness may impact outcomes from structured behavioral weight loss interventions. This secondary analysis investigated the influence of mental health on weight loss among Veterans with prediabetes enrolled in either an in-person diabetes prevention program (DPP) or the usual care weight management program (MOVE!) designed to help patients achieve weight loss through changes in physical activity and diet.

Methods: Prediabetes was defined by Hemoglobin A1c between 5.

Emotional Well-Being and Public Health: Proposal for a Model National Initiative.

In 2011, the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council named mental and emotional well-being as 1 of 7 priority areas for the National Prevention Strategy. In this article, we discuss emotional well-being as a scientific concept and its relevance to public health. We review evidence that supports the association between emotional well-being and health.

Community, Public Policy, and Recovery from Mental Illness: Emerging Research and Initiatives.

This commentary examines the roles that communities and public policies play in the definition and processes of recovery for adults with mental illness. Policy, clinical, and consumer definitions of recovery are reviewed, which highlight the importance of communities and policies for recovery. This commentary then presents a framework for the relationships between community-level factors, policies, and downstream mental health outcomes, focusing on macroeconomic, housing, and health care policies; adverse exposures such as crime victimization; and neighborhood characteristics such as social capital.

Social support and housing transitions among homeless adults with serious mental illness and substance use disorders.

Objective: Research suggests that social supports are associated with housing retention among adults who have experienced homelessness. Yet, we know very little about the social support context in consumers find and retain housing. We examined the ways and identified the junctures in which consumers' skills and deficits in accessing and mobilizing social supports influenced their longitudinal housing status.

Predicting relapse in major depressive disorder using patient-reported outcomes of depressive symptom severity, functioning, and quality of life in the Individual Burden of Illness Index for Depression (IBI-D).

Background: Patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) often experience unexpected relapses, despite achieving remission. This study examines the utility of a single multidimensional measure that captures variance in patient-reported Depressive Symptom Severity, Functioning, and Quality of Life (QOL), in predicting MDD relapse.

Methods: Complete data from remitted patients at the completion of 12 weeks of citalopram in the STAR*D study were used to calculate the Individual Burden of Illness index for Depression (IBI-D), and predict subsequent relapse at six (n=956), nine (n=778), and twelve months (n=479) using generalized linear models.

Incorporating multidimensional patient-reported outcomes of symptom severity, functioning, and quality of life in the Individual Burden of Illness Index for Depression to measure treatment impact and recovery in MDD.

Context: The National Institute of Mental Health Affective Disorders Workgroup identified the assessment of an individual's burden of illness as an important need. The Individual Burden of Illness Index for Depression (IBI-D) metric was developed to meet this need.

Objective: To assess the use of the IBI-D for multidimensional assessment of treatment efficacy for depressed patients.

A descriptive analysis of quality of life using patient-reported measures in major depressive disorder in a naturalistic outpatient setting.

Purpose: Major depressive disorder (MDD) negatively impacts different aspects of an individual's life leading to grave impairments in quality of life (QOL). We performed a detailed analysis of the interaction between depressive symptom severity, functioning, and QOL in outpatients with MDD in order to better understand QOL impairments in MDD.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 319 consecutive outpatients seeking treatment for DSM-IV-diagnosed MDD at an urban hospital-based outpatient clinic from 2005 to 2008 as part of the Cedars-Sinai Psychiatric Treatment Outcome Registry, a prospective cohort study of clinical, functioning, and patient-reported QOL outcomes in psychiatric disorders using a measurement-based care model.

Development and validation of the Individual Burden of Illness Index for Major Depressive Disorder (IBI-D).

This study aims at developing a single numerical measure that represents a depressed patient's individual burden of illness. An exploratory study examined depressed outpatients (n = 317) followed by a hypothesis confirmatory study using the NIMH STAR*D trial (n = 2,967). Eigenvalues/eigenvectors were obtained from the Principal Component Analyses of patient-reported measures of symptom severity, functioning, and quality of life.

Quality of life: the ultimate outcome measure of interventions in major depressive disorder.

Background: Quality-of-life (QOL) assessment and improvement have recently been recognized as important components of health care, in general, and mental health care, in particular. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have a significantly diminished QOL.

Methods: Using a Medline search of relevant keywords for the past 26 years, this article reviews the empirical literature to provide information regarding QOL measurement, impairment, impact of comorbidity, and treatment effects in MDD.

Preferences for Professional Assistance for Distress in a Diverse Sample of Older Adults.

Older adults (N=140; 68.6% minority) participating in community health screenings reported their use and preferences for various professionals and services to deal with distress. Race/ethnicity was recorded based on self-report.