The Negotiating Lives in the Community Research Core is one of two outgrowths of the original Special Populations Core of this Center. Beginning with an original analysis of the devolution of public mental health from a highly organized institutional field through a diffusion of institutional responsibility to, most recently, a de facto system of mental health care based in and across institutional arrangements in the community, the application goes on to delineate three specific aims: (1) to describe the workings of this de facto system in practice, (2) to specify the consequences of irregular service use patterns associated with the system for individuals and organizations, and (3) to explore practical initiatives for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the de facto system. A range of community settings -- from involuntary confinement to independent living -- is represented. Kim Hopper, Ph.D., and Lynn Videka-Sherman, Ph.D. direct the Negotiating Lives in the Community Core. This new core both continues and extends work begun under the Special Populations rubric. Two of the three population-focused themes are brought forward: the focus on homeless persons with severe psychiatric disorders, and the focus on mentally ill persons who come into contact with the criminal justice system. New subpopulations in these groups are identified for study in the renewal phase: homeless mentally ill women separated from their children (invisible mothers), and mentally ill graduates of jail diversion programs. Insights emerging from Center-supported work are deployed in this second phase, the most striking example being the concept of the institutional circuit, which originated in one of the initial pilot studies and has become a conceptual cornerstone of the Negotiating Lives Core. The institutional circuit refers to a makeshift pattern of subsistence consisting of movements across facilities in different systems; it is also directly applied in one of the renewal research projects. Seven projects grouped under three related themes are proposed for this core. An emphasis on studying care taking place at the interstices of institutions in the de facto mental health system is reflected in the first theme, with projects exploring parenting roles of mentally ill women residing in New York City shelters, continuing the delineation of the institutional circuit as part of the study of the course of homelessness, following up incarcerated persons with serious mental illness being returned through jail diversion programs to the community, and developing a program of research on mentally ill persons who commit low-level criminal offenses. The second theme work for individuals with severe mental illness connects this core to the Center?s core focus on recovery. An ethnographic study of a modified clubhouse in New York City in the process of taking work seriously, and an exploratory investigation of affirmative businesses as a means of increasing competitive employment opportunities for mentally ill persons develop this theme. The third theme community relations includes an inquiry into the significance of neighborhoods for the success of programs of supported housing. This study is a companion project to ongoing research comparing supported housing with continuum housing for persons with serious mental disorders.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 18 publications
