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Objective: Increasing service user involvement and collaboration with providers has become an important facet of the recovery movement. This study explored perspectives on the implementation and delivery of an intervention (Just Do You [JDY]) designed to improve treatment engagement among marginalized young adults diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. Method: Informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), we conducted in-depth interviews (N = 11) with nine participants that included agency leaders, clinical providers, and researchers involved with the planning, delivery, and evaluation of JDY. We used grounded theory coding techniques and constant comparison to develop themes that capture the data on implementation and collaboration related to the delivery of JDY. Results: Two broad themes emerged: (a) collaboration between the clinician and person with lived experience and (b) collaborative culture within and between organizations. Findings capture how collaboration occurred between providers within the clinical encounter (e.g., combined strengths of clinicians and peers) and within and between organizations, clustering around several CFIR domains (e.g., inner setting, process, characteristics of individuals, intervention characteristics). Findings speak to the importance of a "culture of collaboration" in which collaboration is occurring across multiple levels of an organization to support the delivery and implementation of JDY. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: JDY can complement other collaborative approaches given its focus on improving initial engagement. Findings point to the perceived benefits of interventions that are facilitated by a clinician and a person with lived experience along with how their combined expertise can support recovery. Impact and Implications: This study examines the perspectives of agency leaders, clinical providers, and researchers on the implementation and delivery of an engagement intervention for young adults diagnosed with serious mental illnesses. Results point to the benefits of initial engagement interventions that are facilitated by a clinician and a person with lived experience, as a step toward participation in more long-term treatment decision making. Their combined expertise can support recovery and can complement other treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current article describes efforts to develop and test a measure of recovery-oriented inpatient care. Method: The Recovery-oriented Acute INpatient (RAIN) scale was based on prior literature and current Veterans Health Administration (VHA) policy and resources and further revised based on data collection from 34 VHA acute inpatient units. Results: A final scale of 23, behaviorally anchored items demonstrated a four-factor structure including the following factors: inpatient treatment planning, outpatient treatment planning, group programming, and milieu. While several items require additional revision to address psychometric concerns, the scale demonstrated adequate model fit and was consistent with prior literature on recovery-oriented inpatient care. Conclusions and Implementations for Practice: The RAIN scale represents an important tool for future implementation and empirical study of recovery-oriented inpatient care. Impact and Implications: This study focused on developing a scale to measure recovery-oriented inpatient mental health care. The study found a 23-item scale matched prior literature and included four general areas of recovery-oriented inpatient care: inpatient treatment planning, outpatient treatment planning, group programming, and milieu. This scale can be used to improve the recovery orientation of inpatient programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Loneliness can impede subjective experiences of recovery. This study examines the relationship between clubhouse participation and loneliness using standardized instruments while controlling for age, gender, living status, and social network characteristics. Method: A random sample of 126 members from one clubhouse was recruited for this cross-sectional investigation. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the association between participation and loneliness. Results: A greater number of clubhouse visits, greater perceived availability of social support and higher levels of overall satisfaction with social network relationships were significantly related to a lower level of loneliness after controlling for covariates. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Service providers may want to pay more attention to those members experiencing loneliness and help them connect with others. Future studies using longitudinal analyses are needed to further assess the causal relationship between clubhouse participation and loneliness. Multiple aspects of participation should be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a mental illness self-management intervention, called Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP), on the use of and need for mental health services over time compared with nutrition and wellness education. Method: Participants were recruited from outpatient community mental health settings in Chicago, Illinois. Using a single-blind, randomized controlled trial design, 143 individuals were assigned to WRAP or to a nutrition education course and assessed at baseline and at 2-month and 8-month follow-up. The WRAP intervention was delivered by peers in recovery from serious mental illness who were certified WRAP educators over nine weekly sessions lasting 2.5 hrs. The nutrition education curriculum was taught by trained non-peer educators using the same schedule. Mixed-effects random regression analysis tested for differences between the two interventions in (a) self-reported use of 19 clinical, rehabilitation, peer, emergent, and ancillary services; and (b) self-reported need for these services. Results: Results of mixed-effects random regression analysis indicated that, compared with controls, WRAP participants reported significantly greater reduction over time in service utilization (total, individual, and group), and service need (total and group services). Participants in both interventions improved significantly over time in symptoms and recovery outcomes. Discussion: Training in mental illness self-management reduced the self-reported need for and use of formal mental health services over time. This confirms the importance of WRAP in an era of dwindling behavioral health service availability and access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Most research on the Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) program for people with severe mental illnesses has focused on individuals with stable symptoms living in the community, with less attention to persons being treated in an inpatient setting. We evaluated the feasibility and effects of an IMR program adapted for individuals with schizophrenia who were awaiting discharge into the community. Method: A randomized controlled trial was conducted at 2 hospitals in Taiwan to compare the adapted IMR program with treatment as usual (TAU). Ninety-seven individuals with schizophrenia were randomized to the adapted IMR program or TAU. Four outcome indicators including illness-management knowledge, attitudes toward medication, insight, and symptoms were assessed at baseline, posttreatment, and at a 1-month follow-up following discharge from the hospital. Results: Participants in the adapted IMR group showed significantly greater improvements at posttreatment and 1-month follow-up in illness-management knowledge, attitudes toward medication, insight, and negative symptoms on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) than individuals in the TAU group. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups on other subscales of the BPRS. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: This is the first controlled evaluation of a version of the IMR program in an East Asian culture, and the first to evaluate it in an acute care inpatient setting. Our findings support the feasibility and potential benefits of implementing an adapted IMR program, focused on the prevention of relapses and rehospitalizations, during the discharge period of an inpatient treatment stay to prepare individuals to reenter the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore mental health consumer and provider responses to a computerized version of the Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) program. Method: Semistructured interviews were conducted to gather data from 6 providers and 12 consumers who participated in a computerized prototype of the IMR program. An inductive-consensus-based approach was used to analyze the interview responses. Results: Qualitative analysis revealed consumers perceived various personal benefits and ease of use afforded by the new technology platform. Consumers also highly valued provider assistance and offered several suggestions to improve the program. The largest perceived barriers to future implementation were lack of computer skills and access to computers. Similarly, IMR providers commented on its ease and convenience, and the reduction of time intensive material preparation. Providers also expressed that the use of technology creates more options for the consumer to access treatment. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: The technology was acceptable, easy to use, and well-liked by consumers and providers. Clinician assistance with technology was viewed as helpful to get clients started with the program, as lack of computer skills and access to computers was a concern. Access to materials between sessions appears to be desired; however, given perceived barriers of computer skills and computer access, additional supports may be needed for consumers to achieve full benefits of a computerized version of IMR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Peer providers experience unique recovery and growth processes. This study examines the relationship of these processes with multiple occupational characteristics related so peer work. Outcomes are examined using positive psychology concepts: psychological well-being, posttraumatic growth, and generatively, as well as established recovery and empowerment measures. Method: Thirty peer providers employed in s variety of mental-health agencies participated in the study and completed standardized measures of recovery and growth processes. Multiple past and present occupational characteristics were identified and coded based on a semistructured interview and a background questionnaire. Results: Multivariate analyses revealed a significant association between participants' generatively and past participation in peer-support/self-help groups, as well as past work in a helping profession. No associations were found between the characteristics of participants' present peer jobs and the examined recovery and growth processes. Conclusions and implications for Practice: The present findings have implications for the expansion of the peer-provider workforce, They suggest that encouraging and enabling peer-support groups and peer-run organizations may have positive impact on the generatively of peer providers, and may draw generative individuals to thin emerging occupational modality of mental- health recovery oriented service. Study findings underscore the need for future research on recovery processes from the perspective of positive psychology and highlight the value of peer exposure as a catalyst of recovery and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]