While as many individuals with serious mental health problems seek help from self-help organizations as they do from mental health professionals, the knowledge base concerning the activities of self-help organizations is extremely limited and research in this area remains in its infancy. The mission of this proposed center will be to serve as a knowledge building resource for self-help among the seriously mentally ill. It will be implemented as a cooperative effort between mental health researchers and consumers of mental health services. The center has four objectives. First, it intends to develop a longitudinal research program looking at a) the process of self-help group- agency development, b) outcomes related to participation in self-help agencies, and c) the relationship of self-help to public and private professionally offered mental health services. Its second objective is to provide a forum within which co-investigators can develop their own independent research projects related to specific self-help activities and the adaptation of self-help approaches to traditional mental health service delivery systems. The center will further seek to encourage the development of analytic concerns related to self-help in ongoing research projects. As its third objective, the center will develop a technical assistance program focused on the dissemination of a prototypical management information system for self-help agencies. The system will research data, as well as self-help agency requirements for their own evaluative needs. To the extent possible, definitions of variables in the MIS system will match variable definitions currently suggested in national attempts to standardize such systems in state and county mental health organizations. The fourth objective is to develop a national network for the dissemination of self-help mental health knowledge based on the California Network of Mental Health Clients and the California Self-Help Center. Distribution capabilities will be expanded by linking with existing national organizations and information sharing networks, such as the National Consumer Teleconference. The intent of the center is to fully incorporate the input of consumers in its activities. Fifty percent of its national advisory committee and its executive committee will be consumers. They will be involved as part of the center's major coordinating committees, ongoing co-investigator meetings, proposal and project development work groups, etc. The knowledge building and research efforts of this center will be a joint enterprise.
