Assessing barriers to engagement in a community mental health center using the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT).

Barriers in access to care prevent many individuals from benefiting from mental health services. The purpose of the current project was to assess the effectiveness and utility of incorporating the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT; Kazak et al., 2001) into standard evaluation procedures at a pediatric psychiatry clinic in a diverse urban setting.

Understanding Users' Perspectives of Psychosocial Mechanisms Underpinning Peer Support Work in Chile.

This study explores the beliefs and attitudes about the psychosocial mechanisms of peer support work among users who participated in Critical Time Intervention-Task Shifting (CTI-TS), which tested the acceptability and feasibility of a peer support work model to improve community-based mental health care for individuals with psychosis in Latin America. We conducted a secondary analysis of 15 in-depth interviews with CTI-TS participants in Chile, using the framework method and defined the framework domains based on five major mechanisms of peer support work identified by a recent literature review. The analysis revealed that users' perceptions of peer support work mechanisms were strongly shaped by personal motivations, beliefs about professional hierarchies, familial support, and the Chilean mental health system's incipient recovery orientation.

Including culture in programs to reduce stigma toward people with mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries.

Stigma is one of the main barriers for the full implementation of mental health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Recently, many initiatives to reduce stigma have been launched in these settings. Nevertheless, the extent to which these interventions are effective and culturally sensitive remains largely unknown.

Implementing a community-based task-shifting psychosocial intervention for individuals with psychosis in Chile: Perspectives from users.

Background: Latin America, and Chile in particular, has a rich tradition of community mental health services and programs. However, in vivo community-based psychosocial interventions, especially those with a recovery-oriented approach, remain scarce in the region. Between 2014 and 2015, a Critical Time Intervention-Task Shifting project (CTI-TS) was implemented in Santiago, Chile, as part of a larger pilot randomized control trial.

What matters most': stigma towards severe mental disorders in Chile, a theory-driven, qualitative approach.

Background: Stigma towards severe mental illness manifests in different ways across cultures and only recently has a theoretical perspective emerged to understand such cultural differences. The 'What Matters Most' framework identifies culturally specific dimensions of stigma by identifying the interactions between cultural norms, roles, and values that impact personhood.

Objective: This study explores the cultural underpinnings that create and maintain stigmatizing attitudes towards severe mental illness in Chile.