Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities face workplace challenges that motivate them to pursue self-employment, but accessible self-employment support is lacking. Using participatory action research, Reclaiming Employment (RE), an online interactive platform that provides self-employment education for people who experience mental health-related challenges around work, was developed to address these gaps. An observational pilot study of RE examined usage, usability, self-efficacy, and self-employment income of 97 participants who used RE for six months. RE users rated the platform at above average usability, although those who experienced long-term unemployment rated the platform significantly lower compared to wage or self-employed users. In longitudinal regression models, we found use of RE was significantly associated with increases in some ESE subscales and mean ESE.
Read MoreA discussion on Leadership, Authenticity, and Self-Acceptance in Participatory Research between Jessica Jonikas of University of Illinois, Chicago and Laysha Ostrow.
Read MoreThe following interview is part of a “future of mental health” interview series that will be running for 100+ days. This series presents different points of view about what helps a person in distress. I’ve aimed to be ecumenical and included many points of view different from my own. I hope you enjoy it. As with every service and resource in the mental health field, please do your due diligence. If you’d like to learn more about these philosophies, services, and organizations mentioned, follow the links provided.
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Social work research must more consistently link case and cause, iteratively developing processes for bringing micro-, mezzo-, and macrostreams of information together. We further argue that meaningful engagement with the initiative requires social work scholars and practitioners to actively scale up practice and research inquiry. We detail two key strategies for employing a scaled-up social work practice and research ethos: (a) employing a critical economic lens and (b) engaging with diverse publics.
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This Open Forum describes the National Survey of Peer-Run Organizations, which was conducted in 2012 to gather information about peer-run organizations and programs, organizational operations, policy perspectives, and service systems. A total of 895 entities were identified and contacted as potential peer-run organizations. Information was obtained for 715 (80%) entities, and 380 of the 715 responding entities met the criteria for a peer-run organization.
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The paper describes how peer interviewers were recruited, hired, trained, and supervised. The authors discuss some benefits and challenges associated with the approach. Peer interviewer benefits and challenges: the shared lived experience between the peer interviewers and study participants contributed to increased comfort and a high response rate overall. The study opened up professional opportunities for peers, but inconsistent work hours were a challenge and resulted in turnover and difficulty filling vacant positions. The lead evaluator and supervisors worked closely with peer interviewers to ensure conflict of interest was mitigated to reduce bias.
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This paper describes data collection methods and demonstrates how participatory strategies to involve people with psychiatric histories intersected with Internet research to achieve study aims. People with psychiatric histories were involved in designing and implementing a web-based survey to collect data on peer-run organizations' operations and views on national policy. Participatory approaches were used throughout design, data collection analysis, and dissemination. The extensive involvement of people with psychiatric histories in project design and implementation were important strategies that contributed to this study's success.
Read MoreMad In America’s Peter Simons interviews Laysha Ostrow about her mental health research and consulting company, the inclusion of peer specialists in mental health care, and her personal experience with the mental health system.
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Erika Miranda-Bartlett, Outreach Specialist with Live & Learn, Inc., discusses what brought her to the Certified Peer Specialist Career Outcomes Study and what it means to her.
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In this presentation for the Doors to Wellbeing Technical Assistance Center, we discuss service user-research, which is a type of CBPR in mental health in which individuals with professional research qualifications and lived experience are project leaders or co-leaders. It explicitly uses lived experience in research work. Despite the continued development of service user-research internationally, service user research in the USA continues to encounter significant barrie
Read More"This is something people choose, and we don't know enough about it to help people," says Laysha Ostrow, chief executive officer of a mental-health consultancy in California and a public-health researcher who worked on the study. "I feel that it's important to bring those ideas into more of a mainstream conversation, given how many people decide to discontinue. It shouldn't be this subversive thing that we don't talk about in the health-care system or in research."
Read MoreTo enhance service user choice and prevent undesirable outcomes, this first U.S. survey of a large sample of longer-term users sought to increase knowledge about users’ experience of medication discontinuation. About half (54%) met their goal of completely discontinuing one or more medications; 46% reported another outcome (use was reduced, use increased, or use stayed the same). Of respondents who completely discontinued, 82% were satisfied with their decision.
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