Project SHARE (Self-Help and Advocacy Resource Exchange), a consumer-run program under the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania (MHASP), will work with The West Philadelphia Community Mental Health Consortium (The Consortium) in Philadelphia and Hahnemann University to implement and evaluate a demonstration of consumer and non-consumer case management approaches. This demonstration represents an important collaborative effort among a consumer-run organization, a city/state funded mental health center and a major academic institution. The demonstration is designed to compare the effectiveness of two case management approaches; one case management team composed solely of non- consumers working out of a community mental health center; and one """"""""mixed"""""""" team composed predominantly of consumers with one non-consumer case manager. Project SHARE will choose consumers to be trained and employed as case managers. The Consortium will provide a non-consumer case management team from their Base Service Unit (BSU), the site for standard Catchment Area services, for this demonstration. Consumers will be persons with severe mental illness from the catchment area of The Consortium. The major hypothesis test in this services demonstration/research project is: that a consumer case management team because they have had direct life experience interacting with the mental health system will be as effective or more effective than a non-consumer team approach in reducing consumer's behavioral symptomatology and in improving a variety of clinical and social outcomes and quality of life for persons served. The project will also look at the secondary impact upon the consumer case managers in terms of job tenure, job satisfaction and self esteem. In addition, how professionals perceive the consumer and non-consumer teams will be evaluated.
