With the deinstitutionalization of people committed to psychiatric hospitals and
changes in psychiatric treatment brought about by managed care efforts,
consumers developed self-help
programs designed to improve outcomes for people with mental illness through
peer support. Services offered include drop-in centers, vocational and housing
programs, peer counseling, case-management services, crisis alternatives to
hospitalization, advocacy training, business ventures, and peer support groups.
While these programs have existed for over two decades, little formal evaluation
has focused on the effectiveness of this mental health service delivery model. A
better understanding of existing consumer-operated service programs could
provide the empirical basis for creating effective partnerships between these
programs and traditional mental health services.
The
Consumer-Operated Services Program (COSP) Multisite Research Initiative
is a federally-funded national effort to discover to what extent
consumer-operated programs as an adjunct to traditional mental health services
are effective in improving the outcomes of people with serious mental illness.
More than 2,200 racially and ethnically diverse consumers will participate in the
four-year study that is designed to:
·
examine
the effect
of consumer-operated services on empowerment, housing,
employment, social inclusion, and satisfaction with services, and
·
determine
how participation
in Consumer-Operated Services (COSP) affects costs for
in-patient hospitalization, crisis intervention, and emergency room utilization
as well as how it offsets costs in housing, criminal justice, vocational
rehabilitation, physical health care, and income support.
·
Secondary goals
are (1) to create partnerships among consumers,
service providers, and researchers, and (2) to disseminate knowledge
gained about the effectiveness of COSP and the specific components that
contribute to their success.
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