Association between housing, personal capacity factors and community participation among persons with psychiatric disabilities.

There is a need to understand which housing and personal capacity factors facilitate and hinder maximum community participation among people with psychiatric disabilities. The present study examined housing and personal capacity factors associated with community participation in a large sample of persons with psychiatric disabilities living in the same neighborhoods (defined by specified zip codes). Three hundred and forty-three persons with psychiatric disabilities were recruited from congregate and independent scatter-site housing programs in 3 New York City-area neighborhoods with high concentrations of housing for persons with psychiatric disabilities.

The Role of Neighborhood Factors and Community Stigma in Predicting Community Participation Among Persons With Psychiatric Disabilities.

Objective: This study examined the association between neighborhood characteristics, stigma related to mental illness reported by local community members, and measures of perceived stigma and community participation among individuals with psychiatric disabilities living in independent scattered-site housing or in congregate housing in three neighborhoods in the New York City metropolitan area.

Methods: Neighborhood characteristics were drawn from the 2010 U.S.

Context and opportunity: multiple perspectives on parenting by women with a severe mental illness.

Objective: The capabilities framework and a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach frame this study. We consider the real opportunities for parenting available for women with serious mental health diagnoses, despite complications posed by their own capacity, material constraints, social network disruptions, and, by law, custom and policy related to mental health conditions and child custody decisions.

Method: We convened focus groups with mothers currently living in shelters apart from their children, service providers in supported housing programs, grandmothers caring for children of mothers with mental health and substance use problems, and a policy discussion with mental health administrators.

Predictors of Criminal Justice Outcomes Among Mental Health Courts Participants: The Role of Perceived Coercion and Subjective Mental Health Recovery.

Internationally, one effort to reduce the number of people with serious mental illness (SMI) in jails and prisons is the development of Mental Health Courts (MHC). Research on MHCs to date has been disproportionately focused on the study of recidivism and re-incarceration over the potential of these problem-solving courts to facilitate mental health recovery and affect the slope or gradient of opportunity for recovery. Despite the strong conceptual links between the MHC approach and the recovery-orientation in mental health, the capacity for MHCs to facilitate recovery has not been explored.

Motherhood in women with serious mental illness.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of motherhood among inpatient females at a large state psychiatric hospital in suburban New York, as well as develop an understanding of the characteristics and needs of this unique population. Data on motherhood status was gathered from October 2010 through April 2011 via medical records. Data on custody status, frequency of contacts with children, and effect of mental illness on parenting was assessed through patient surveys and focus groups.

Introducing spirituality into psychiatric care.

Spirituality is important to many psychiatric patients, and these patients may be moved toward recovery more effectively if their spiritual needs are addressed in treatment. This, however, is rarely given expression in the psychiatric services of teaching hospitals. In order to develop this potential area of improved care, we (1) evaluated the differential attitudes of patients and psychiatric trainees toward the value of spirituality in the recovery process, (2) established a program of group meetings conducted by psychiatric residents and staff where patients can discuss how to draw on their spirituality in coping with their problems, and (3) established related training experiences for psychiatric residents.

Innovations: clinical computing: an audio computer-assisted self-interviewing system for research and screening in public mental health settings.

This column describes the nonproprietary software Talker, used to adapt screening instruments to audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI) systems for low-literacy populations and other populations. Talker supports ease of programming, multiple languages, on-site scoring, and the ability to update a central research database. Key features include highly readable text display, audio presentation of questions and audio prompting of answers, and optional touch screen input.