1. Community Mental Health Center Visits and Community Mobility of People with Serious Mental Illnesses: A Facilitator or Constraint?
- Author
-
Eugene Brusilovskiy, Louis Klein, Mark S. Salzer, Greg Townley, Bryan P. McCormick, and Gretchen Snethen
- Subjects
Adult ,Gerontology ,Time-out ,Health (social science) ,Community Mental Health Centers ,Mental Disorders ,Community participation ,Community Participation ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Psychological intervention ,Destinations ,Mental health ,Community Mental Health Services ,030227 psychiatry ,03 medical and health sciences ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,0302 clinical medicine ,Facilitator ,Vocational education ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Psychology ,Constraint (mathematics) - Abstract
Mental health services and interventions have increasingly focused on the importance of community participation and mobility for people with serious mental illnesses (SMI). This study examined the role that visits to community mental health centers (CMHCs) may play in increasing community mobility of people with SMI. Eighty-nine adults with SMI receiving services at three CMHCS were tracked with GPS-enabled phones over a 13-day period. Findings revealed that participants visited more destinations on days they went to a CMHC compared to days they did not. They also spent more time out of the home and traveled greater distances. Results suggest that the benefits of visiting a mental health center appear to go beyond treatment outcomes, but also point to the possibility that obligations, whether to a clinic appointment or possibly vocational, educational, leisure, faith, or social commitments, may be an important stepping stone to more mobility and intentional, sustained community participation.
- Published
- 2021