The Center for Research on the Organization and Financing of Care for the Severely Mentally Ill provides a well developed infrastructure for research and training in mental health services research and policy of direct relevance to improving systems of care, clinical practice, social policy decisions and the function and quality of life of persons with severe mental illnesses. It does so by recruiting talented researchers, providing mentorship and a supportive research structure for their professional development, building interdisciplinary teams to address complex and important services issues, and translating research findings to policymakers, practitioners, families and consumers of mental health services. Core funding is directed toward pilot and developmental studies that are expected to lead to major externally funded initiatives. (Service Innovations) focuses on strategies that can contribute improved treatment effectiveness and quality of life, such as programs to improve medication adherence. Researchers also track changing patterns of services under deinstitutionalization, increasing privatization, and managed care penetration. (Systems Interaction) examines ways of improving communication and cooperation among service systems, efforts to avoid criminalization of persons with mental illnesses, clients with comorbidities, and improvement of services for persons who depend on more than sector of care. (Care Under Constraints) examines how managed care arrangements and health insurance benefit designs affect access to care, utilization of services, appropriate treatment and outcomes. This core focuses particularly on Medicare and Medicaid programs that are of central importance to persons with severe mental illnesses. (Assessing Needs and Costs) addresses assessment and measurement of need for services, provision of care that is appropriate and accessible to different cultural and age groups, and improved standards and practices of cost effectiveness analysis. The Outreach Care fosters collaboration and communication with key groups to ensure the policy and practice applicability of the Center's research. The Development Core includes well-developed postdoctoral, doctoral, and undergraduate programs in mental health services research. Skill-building workshops and research seminars promote dialogue on ongoing research results and the use of state-of-the-art research methods. Interdisciplinary teams working in each core area receive technical assistance from Center experts in five key areas: measurement of client outcomes; family burden; cost outcomes; cultural diversity; and policy significance. Well-defined processes have been developed for mentorship, peer review, and the translation of important knowledge to those who can use it. The Center brings together a critical mass of mental health services researchers whose work aims to combine solid social science with practical policy relevance.
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