For Mental Health Awareness Month, we are exploring some of the latest NIDILRR-funded research to support the independence and full participation of people with psychiatric disabilities in their communities. These projects research and develop interventions and technology to support health and wellness, successful employment outcomes, transition from school to work, and community participation.

Staying healthy

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Health and Function of People with Psychiatric Disabilities conducts research and training to support the health and wellness of people with psychiatric disabilities. Their latest projects include surveying the health status of adults during the pandemic, telehealth access to primary health care, mental health self-management programs, and surveying the health of transition-age youth with psychiatric disabilities.

Peer Navigators for the Health and Wellness of People with Psychiatric Disabilities is testing a peer navigator program on engagement of people with psychiatric disabilities in the existing service system to address their health and wellness goals.

Working in the community

Evaluating the Efficacy of a Group Intervention to Improve Workplace Soft Skills for Transition-Aged Youth with Psychiatric Disabilities evaluates the effectiveness of a social skills intervention, Skills to Pay the Bills, to improve workplace socialization skills for transition-aged youth with psychiatric disabilities.

Developing a Career Services Toolkit for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness Pursuing Post-secondary and Technical Education (CTE) develops a career services toolkit to assist individuals with serious mental illnesses to succeed in post-secondary CTE programs, and to gain employment within their intended field.

Reclaiming Employment: Self-Employment Resources for Mental Health Service Users develops and evaluates a public facing online platform called Reclaiming Employment that provides support for individuals with psychiatric disabilities to pursue self-employment and entrepreneurship.

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Improving Employment Outcomes for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities conducts research and training on supported employment and other programs to improve employment outcomes for people with psychiatric disabilities. These include individual placement supports, self-management strategies for workplace success, and integrated career guidance and supported education, among others.

Staying independent

Testing an Intervention to Promote Financial Wellness Among Adults with Psychiatric Disabilities conducts a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a financial literacy intervention called Building Financial Wellness (BFW) delivered to adults with serious mental illness.

ACT Together: Using Technology to Facilitate Service Integration for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities builds a technology platform for enhanced Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) service delivery for consumers with serious psychiatric disability. ACT is an evidence-based, team-delivered intensive care management model that supports comprehensive integrated community-based care for individuals with severe psychiatric disability to promote community living and participation.

Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Community Living and Participation of People with Serious Mental Illness advances the development of interventions that maximize community living and participation of individuals with severe mental illness through research and knowledge translation activities in partnership with consumers and other key stakeholders, and serves as a national resource center for people with SMI, their families, service and support providers, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders through knowledge translation activities based in state-of-the-art translational practices. 

These are just a few of more than 50 current projects that focus on psychiatric disability as well as the mental health of people with other disabilities. Explore more of these projects in the NIDILRR Program Database!