The objective of this proposal is to facilitate my development as a mental health services researcher through expanding my role as Director of the New Hampshire-Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center into a full- time position and using intensive consultation and collaboration to develop and conduct a series of clinical and economic studies. For the past ten years, I have been working as a clinician and economic studies. For the past ten years, I have been working as a clinician and clinical researcher in the public sector. My research has emphasized clinical and longitudinal aspects of adjustment among the chronically mentally ill, most recently among those who also have substance abuse problems. Directing the state's research center and coordinating Dartmouth's collaboration with the Division of Mental Health for research purposes affords me a unique opportunity to enhance my skills as a services researcher. New Hampshire has a well coordinated mental health system that is undergoing important changes and is willing to be examined. It also has a strong public-academic liaison that facilitates research on these services. This proposal describes my plans for development as a services researcher in terms of areas of development, collaborative and consultative expertise on which I will draw, specific plans for development , and several of the projects that will serve as vehicles for integrating these learning experiences. The research projects focus on mental health services for patients who are dually diagnosed with mental illness and substance abuse. The service system for these patients is currently in transition with the help of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation mental health demonstration grant. I will examine the clinical and economic effectiveness of this system through a series of controlled, clinical system trials.
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