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The UPENN Community Integration News |
The UPenn Collaborative Website |
Welcome!Welcome to the first edition of the UPenn Community Integration News! This e-newsletter is sponsored by the UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration, which is the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) Promoting Community Integration of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities, funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education. The Collaborative, based at the University of Pennsylvania, is conducted in partnership with the National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse at the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and The Matrix Center at Horizon House, Inc. The goal of this RRTC is to target obstacles that prevent people from being full members of their communities, to develop supports that enhance community integration, and to expand opportunities for people who have mental illnesses to participate in their communities as active, equal members. To that end, we are conducting extensive research, and providing a wide variety of training and technical assistance to many different stakeholders in the mental health community. In our newsletters, we hope to keep you updated on our recent research findings, our training initiatives and other RRTC announcements. If you would like to continue to get this newsletter, you do not need to do anything. If you would like to unsubscribe, please hit the unsubscribe key at the bottom of the page. (All UPenn Community Integration newsletters and mailings are sent from the "list.mhselfhelp.org" domain. Please use this domain name--not the entire "from" address, which varies by mailing--when configuring e-mail filters and for adding the UPenn Community Integration News to your list of allowed e-mail--sometimes known as a "whitelist." For information on how to do that, we suggest contacting your e-mail provider's Help.) UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration Announces National ConferenceSeptember 19-20, 2006: HOLD THAT DATE for the UPenn Collaborative "National Conference on the State of the Knowledge on Promoting Community Integration of People with Psychiatric Disabilities." In addition, on September 21, 2006, UPenn Collaborative faculty will offer half-day and full-day training programs using the latest RRTC training curricula developed out of RRTC research and training and technical assistance experiences. Conference presentations and training programs are planned for a broad stakeholder audience: advocates, family members, service providers, practitioners, researchers and policy makers. This two-day conference (Tuesday and Wednesday) and one-day training program (Thursday) will take place at the Holiday Inn in the Historic District of Philadelphia. Look for further information -- a Call for Proposals and registration information -- on our website www.upennrrtc.org and in mailings in the near future. RRTC DIRECTORS OF RESEARCH RECEIVE AWARDSPhyllis Solomon, PhD Receives the 2005 Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement AwardPhyllis Solomon, Ph.D., Director of Research for the UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration, was recently awarded the Knee/Wittman Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Association of Social Workers Foundation for her pioneering contributions in the areas of social work, mental health, psychosocial rehabilitation and family education for caregivers of persons with serious mental illnesses. This award recognizes individuals who are models of excellence and who have made significant contributions in the fields of health and mental health. Dr. Solomon, who is a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice with a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, has focused her 30-year career in social work research on areas such as the consequences of de-institutionalization, family members’/caregivers’ ability to sustain persons with serious mental illnesses in the community, and the needs of underserved populations with mental illnesses — people who are homeless, people in prison and substance abusers. This award was given at a ceremony on Saturday, October 22, 2005. Joseph Rogers Receives Heinz AwardJoseph A. Rogers, Director of Research for the UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration, President and CEO of the Mental Health Association of SEPA and Executive Director of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse, was honored with a 2005 Heinz Award, one of the largest individual achievement awards in the world. Rogers was one of five Americans selected to receive this prestigious award, which includes a medallion and an unrestricted cash prize of $250,000. As Teresa Heinz Kerry, who chairs the Heinz Family Foundation, said, “For close to a quarter-century, Joseph Rogers has been a front-line crusader in the struggle to reform the delivery of mental health services…He has not only shattered stereotypes about our attitudes toward those who require mental health care, but he has advanced a sea change in thinking about the role consumers can and should play in seeking such care. His life’s work is one of courage and inspiration, which has brought hope to countless Americans.” This award was given at a formal ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 24, 2005. Housing Research Shows Modest Levels of Residential SegregationRecently Drs. Stephen Metraux, Joel Caplan, Laurence Klugman and Trevor Hadley completed a housing study which was accepted for publication by the Journal of Community Psychology. This study assessed the extent of residential segregation among 15,246 people diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities and receiving Medicaid (Medical Assistance [MA]) in Philadelphia, and an identically sized group of MA recipients serving as matched controls. Results indicate that overall levels of residential segregation among this group were modest at their most extreme, were not markedly different from a control group of Medicaid recipients without any record of treatment for severe mental illness, and were substantially reduced after taking poverty into account. However, there were areas in Philadelphia that showed distinct concentrations of persons with psychiatric disabilities, suggesting there may be a subgroup that is at higher risk for living in areas with elevated concentrations of persons with serious psychiatric disabilities. This study shows that residence patterns of the individuals in the study group are still linked to their poverty; this further supports the importance of efforts to assure that one’s status as a person with a psychiatric disability is not accompanied by an increased vulnerability to poverty. Housing services and supports need to help people gain access to a range of housing options so that they need not be clustered in specific neighborhoods. Other implications are that services and supports — such as supported education and/or career services — need to complement housing supports by helping people escape poverty. Metraux and his colleagues will continue this research with an analysis of the distribution of publicly and privately supported congregate living facilities in Philadelphia and the impact of this distribution on the overall residential housing patterns found in this paper. Custody Loss is Higher for Mothers with Serious Mental IllnessRecent research by the UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration has found that mothers with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and major affective disorders, are more likely than other mothers to have children involved in the child welfare system. The researchers merged Medicaid eligibility and claims data with data from the child welfare system in Philadelphia for fiscal years 1995-2000. They examined the experiences of 4,827 mothers between the ages of 15 and 45 as of 1996, who were first Medicaid-eligible through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) between 1995 and 1996, and who had at least one child under 18. They found that 14 percent of mothers with serious mental illnesses received child welfare services compared with 11.7 percent of those with other psychiatric diagnoses and 4.2 percent of those without a psychiatric diagnosis. Even after they took into account whether mothers had had an inpatient episode, their ethnicity and age, mothers diagnosed with serious mental illnesses were almost three times more likely to have child welfare system involvement or to have children who had an out-of-home placement. The results suggest the urgent need for increased planning and coordination between the child welfare and mental health systems, including providing parenting support as part of mental health treatment for mothers. UPENN RRTC Offers Community Integration Tool Kit Series on WebsiteGo to UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities Website (www.upennrrtc.org) to download detailed information on the following topics: UPenn Collaborators In the News
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In the news...UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration RRTC Directors of Research Receive Awards Housing Research Shows Modest Levels of Residential Segregation Custody Loss is Higher for Mothers with Serious Mental Illness UPENN RRTC Offers Community Integration Tool Kit Series on Website |
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