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I. Description of the Project

The Consumer Operated Services Project (COSP) is a national, multi-site study of services that are run by and for people designated as having serious mental illness.  The study is sponsored and funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s  (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services and is coordinated through the Missouri Institute of Mental Health. The purpose of the COSP is to examine the impact of participating in a consumer-operated service on people with psychiatric disabilities who receive traditional mental health services.  The following outcomes will be examined:

1. Empowerment
   
2. Housing/Residential Stability
   
3. Movement Towards Work
   
4. Social Inclusion/Integration
   
5. Satisfaction With Services
   
6. Costs (Individual, System, & Society)

The qualities that consumers/survivors offer to the provision of services and the key issues related to peer support have not been fully explored in research, evaluation, or program development.  In research that has focused on the outcomes associated with self-help groups, ex-patients and consumers have repeatedly asserted that mental health services are more effective when the person receiving help has direct control over the help and when there is reciprocity.  Additional research has indicated that positive changes related to perceptions of self, social functioning, decision making, and symptoms are associated with mental health self-help groups.

With the current radical restructuring of mental health service delivery systems and the rise of managed care, it is critical to rigorously define the role that community-based peer-support systems can play in the rehabilitation of persons with psychiatric disorders, and to examine the effectiveness of peer-support models of psychosocial rehabilitation.

Site specific information: As an interviewer, you will be conducting intensive two-hour face to face interviews with consumers/survivors.    The protocol will be administered to a total of 360 consumers/survivors who will be randomly selected from a roster of participants at the Mental Health Cooperative, Volunteer Behavioral Health and Peninsula Behavioral Health.

In the following sections of this manual, you will be given instructions or guidelines for interviewing, and administration, as well as definitions and explanations of the survey instrument.  Each section will also be thoroughly reviewed during the interviewer training sessions, during which you will be able to practice conducting interviews and can ask for further information or explanations.  During the training and at the conclusion of training, you will be asked to give feedback to the trainers to adjust and improve the clarity and delivery style of the training.  We appreciate your being a vital part of this innovative project.