The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work proposes to establish a Social Work Research Development Center to address the major mental health services problems of treatment access, adherence and effectiveness by employing the social work ecological perspective. This Infrastructure Improvement Plan has three aims: 1) to advance our knowledge of factors contributing to treatment access and adherence, 2) to create structural supports to facilitate the mental health research contributions of Social Work faculty, and 3) to stimulate new and original research through a collaboration between Social Work and those Psychiatry faculty participating in the Mental Healthcare Policy and Research Consortium established at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. We will create interdisciplinary research teams to address three core knowledge areas: access and adherence in the seriously mentally ill; help-seeking behaviors and barriers to care for women and families; and pathways to care for undiagnosed populations at risk. We will provide individual mentoring, institute a Mental Health Research Training Track in the doctoral program, and create an administrative framework to support faculty research and research training efforts in the School of Social Work. We will convene a Research Initiatives Group of interdisciplinary experienced and developing services researchers to foster the development of original research. The primary measure of Center effectiveness will be evidence of contributions to the national effort to increase the critical mass of quality social work research.
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