Stacey Barrenger

 Stacey Barrenger

Stacey L. Barrenger

  • Courses4
  • Reviews4

Biography

New York University Silver School of Social Work School of Social Work - Social Work

Assistant Professor at New York University
Higher Education
Stacey
Barrenger
New York, New York
Mental health services researcher, examining the intersection between the mental health system and other systems of care: criminal justice, homelessness, poverty. Dedicated to developing useful community-based, recovery-oriented interventions to improve the lives of those with mental illnesses. Also interested in implementation research that considers community or structural factors that can impact the effectiveness of empirically supported treatments in high risk environments.


Experience

  • University of Pennsylvania

    Principal Investigator

    Mental Illness and Prison Reentry in a High Risk Context. NIMH funded study examining the impact of the risk environment on Critical Time Intervention (CTI), an evidence-based practice on community reentry for men with mental illnesses leaving prison in New Jersey.

  • University of Pennsylvania

    Research Assistant

    Research Assistant on two projects: CTI as Community Reentry Support for Prisoners with Mental Illness and Enhancing Linkages to HIV Primary Care in Jail Settings.

  • University of Chicago

    Data Manager

    Data Manager and Coordinator of an evaluation study of a Forensic Assertive Community Treatment team.

  • University of Chicago

    Project Coordinator

    Coordinator for multi-site NIMH study on the genetics of bipolar disorder.

  • New York University

    Assistant Professor

    Assistant Professor at the Silver School of Social Work, New York University. Mental health services researcher, currently interested in the intersection of the mental health system and other systems: criminal justice, homelessness, substance use, and poverty. My current research examines the process of desistance for peers with criminal justice histories and the prison health care experiences of those formerly incarcerated. Teaching interests are social determinants of health and human behavior in the social environment.

Education

  • University of Pennsylvania

    Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

    Social Welfare

  • University of Pennsylvania

    Principal Investigator


    Mental Illness and Prison Reentry in a High Risk Context. NIMH funded study examining the impact of the risk environment on Critical Time Intervention (CTI), an evidence-based practice on community reentry for men with mental illnesses leaving prison in New Jersey.

  • University of Pennsylvania

    Research Assistant


    Research Assistant on two projects: CTI as Community Reentry Support for Prisoners with Mental Illness and Enhancing Linkages to HIV Primary Care in Jail Settings.

  • University of Chicago

    AM

    School of Social Service Administration

  • University of Chicago

    Data Manager


    Data Manager and Coordinator of an evaluation study of a Forensic Assertive Community Treatment team.

  • University of Chicago

    Project Coordinator


    Coordinator for multi-site NIMH study on the genetics of bipolar disorder.

  • Michigan State University

    BA

    Social Science

Publications

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • Reincarceration Risk Among Men with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison: A Risk Environment Analysis

    Community Mental Health Journal

    Reentry interventions for persons with men-tal illness leaving prison have consisted primarily of link-age to mental health services and have produced mixed results on psychiatric and criminal recidivism. These interventions primarily focus on intra-individual risk fac-tors. However, social and environmental factors may also increase risk of reincarceration by constraining choices and pro-social opportunities for community reintegration upon release from prison. In order to add to the knowledge base on understanding reincarceration risk for men with mental illnesses leaving prison, we examined interpersonal and environmental factors that exposed men to heightened risk for reincarceration. As part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention for men with mental illness leaving prison, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 men within 6 months of release from prison. Policies and practices at local and state levels, com-munity conditions, and interpersonal obligation and con-flict were identified as increasing risk for reincarceration.

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • Reincarceration Risk Among Men with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison: A Risk Environment Analysis

    Community Mental Health Journal

    Reentry interventions for persons with men-tal illness leaving prison have consisted primarily of link-age to mental health services and have produced mixed results on psychiatric and criminal recidivism. These interventions primarily focus on intra-individual risk fac-tors. However, social and environmental factors may also increase risk of reincarceration by constraining choices and pro-social opportunities for community reintegration upon release from prison. In order to add to the knowledge base on understanding reincarceration risk for men with mental illnesses leaving prison, we examined interpersonal and environmental factors that exposed men to heightened risk for reincarceration. As part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention for men with mental illness leaving prison, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 men within 6 months of release from prison. Policies and practices at local and state levels, com-munity conditions, and interpersonal obligation and con-flict were identified as increasing risk for reincarceration.

  • Mental Illness Along the Criminal Justice Continuum

    Journal of Forensic Social Work

    Persons with mental illnesses are overrepresented along the criminal justice continuum (police, courts, parole and probation, incarceration, and reentry), which expose individuals to risk but can also serve at points of intervention. Two predominant explanations for this overrepresentation and the evidence surrounding interventions are examined. The most common interventions at each point on the continuum and their research evidence are examined, providing an overview of promising interventions, highlighting the need for more robust research or program development, and laying the groundwork for future systematic reviews at each point on the continuum. In general, interventions have not reduced the prevalence of persons with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. Future interventions should address the individual, environmental, and structural factors exposing individuals to continued contact with the criminal justice system, requiring an interdisciplinary effort across the criminal justice and mental health workforce to address this complex problem.

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • Reincarceration Risk Among Men with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison: A Risk Environment Analysis

    Community Mental Health Journal

    Reentry interventions for persons with men-tal illness leaving prison have consisted primarily of link-age to mental health services and have produced mixed results on psychiatric and criminal recidivism. These interventions primarily focus on intra-individual risk fac-tors. However, social and environmental factors may also increase risk of reincarceration by constraining choices and pro-social opportunities for community reintegration upon release from prison. In order to add to the knowledge base on understanding reincarceration risk for men with mental illnesses leaving prison, we examined interpersonal and environmental factors that exposed men to heightened risk for reincarceration. As part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention for men with mental illness leaving prison, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 men within 6 months of release from prison. Policies and practices at local and state levels, com-munity conditions, and interpersonal obligation and con-flict were identified as increasing risk for reincarceration.

  • Mental Illness Along the Criminal Justice Continuum

    Journal of Forensic Social Work

    Persons with mental illnesses are overrepresented along the criminal justice continuum (police, courts, parole and probation, incarceration, and reentry), which expose individuals to risk but can also serve at points of intervention. Two predominant explanations for this overrepresentation and the evidence surrounding interventions are examined. The most common interventions at each point on the continuum and their research evidence are examined, providing an overview of promising interventions, highlighting the need for more robust research or program development, and laying the groundwork for future systematic reviews at each point on the continuum. In general, interventions have not reduced the prevalence of persons with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. Future interventions should address the individual, environmental, and structural factors exposing individuals to continued contact with the criminal justice system, requiring an interdisciplinary effort across the criminal justice and mental health workforce to address this complex problem.

  • Balancing Accessibility and Selectivity in 21st Century Public Mental Health Services: Implications for Hard to Engage Clients

    Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research

    This research highlights the importance of expanding examinations of service accessibility for hard to engage client populations to include assessments of individuals’ ability to gain entrance to services and the system’s ability to meet the service needs of particular client populations. The results of this research provide a framework to support these examinations. The increasing levels of selectivity and targeting of mental health services to particular client populations found in this study raise fundamental questions about the goals of service accessibility in 21st century public mental health services generally, and for hard-to-engage clients particularly. These findings also point to the need for examinations of the eligibility criteria and gatekeeping mechanism that are used to target services to particular client populations to determine if they are working as intended and to assess what impact these mechanisms have on hard to engage clients’ ability to gain entrance to needed services.

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • Reincarceration Risk Among Men with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison: A Risk Environment Analysis

    Community Mental Health Journal

    Reentry interventions for persons with men-tal illness leaving prison have consisted primarily of link-age to mental health services and have produced mixed results on psychiatric and criminal recidivism. These interventions primarily focus on intra-individual risk fac-tors. However, social and environmental factors may also increase risk of reincarceration by constraining choices and pro-social opportunities for community reintegration upon release from prison. In order to add to the knowledge base on understanding reincarceration risk for men with mental illnesses leaving prison, we examined interpersonal and environmental factors that exposed men to heightened risk for reincarceration. As part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention for men with mental illness leaving prison, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 men within 6 months of release from prison. Policies and practices at local and state levels, com-munity conditions, and interpersonal obligation and con-flict were identified as increasing risk for reincarceration.

  • Mental Illness Along the Criminal Justice Continuum

    Journal of Forensic Social Work

    Persons with mental illnesses are overrepresented along the criminal justice continuum (police, courts, parole and probation, incarceration, and reentry), which expose individuals to risk but can also serve at points of intervention. Two predominant explanations for this overrepresentation and the evidence surrounding interventions are examined. The most common interventions at each point on the continuum and their research evidence are examined, providing an overview of promising interventions, highlighting the need for more robust research or program development, and laying the groundwork for future systematic reviews at each point on the continuum. In general, interventions have not reduced the prevalence of persons with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. Future interventions should address the individual, environmental, and structural factors exposing individuals to continued contact with the criminal justice system, requiring an interdisciplinary effort across the criminal justice and mental health workforce to address this complex problem.

  • Balancing Accessibility and Selectivity in 21st Century Public Mental Health Services: Implications for Hard to Engage Clients

    Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research

    This research highlights the importance of expanding examinations of service accessibility for hard to engage client populations to include assessments of individuals’ ability to gain entrance to services and the system’s ability to meet the service needs of particular client populations. The results of this research provide a framework to support these examinations. The increasing levels of selectivity and targeting of mental health services to particular client populations found in this study raise fundamental questions about the goals of service accessibility in 21st century public mental health services generally, and for hard-to-engage clients particularly. These findings also point to the need for examinations of the eligibility criteria and gatekeeping mechanism that are used to target services to particular client populations to determine if they are working as intended and to assess what impact these mechanisms have on hard to engage clients’ ability to gain entrance to needed services.

  • Discursive Processes Creating Team Culture and Recovery Orientation Among Housing First Providers

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    A recovery orientation is imperative in mental health services. While structural aspects of programs can influence service providers’ orientation to recovery principles, team culture as exemplified by staff attitudes, values, and beliefs is central to the incorporation of recovery principles in everyday practice. Using Fine's (1979) idioculture framework, this study examined the discursive process in team meetings at a housing first program. Researchers observed team meetings and conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with case managers from two assertive community treatment teams. Open coding identified categories indicating discursive processes grounded in the recovery language and higher-level coding derived intersubjective themes related to the use of recovery oriented culture during team meetings. Discursive processes included giving benefit of the doubt, withholding judgment, celebrating small things, and accentuating the positive and softening the negative. Using these discursive practices, the team navigated triggering events from landlords and providers by engaging in language that defused situations, normalized behaviors, and recognized residents’ successes, which served to facilitate positive discussions about residents rather than pathologizing their behaviors. Understanding the underlying processes contributing to team culture can inform and facilitate the implementation of recovery-oriented practice.

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • Reincarceration Risk Among Men with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison: A Risk Environment Analysis

    Community Mental Health Journal

    Reentry interventions for persons with men-tal illness leaving prison have consisted primarily of link-age to mental health services and have produced mixed results on psychiatric and criminal recidivism. These interventions primarily focus on intra-individual risk fac-tors. However, social and environmental factors may also increase risk of reincarceration by constraining choices and pro-social opportunities for community reintegration upon release from prison. In order to add to the knowledge base on understanding reincarceration risk for men with mental illnesses leaving prison, we examined interpersonal and environmental factors that exposed men to heightened risk for reincarceration. As part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention for men with mental illness leaving prison, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 men within 6 months of release from prison. Policies and practices at local and state levels, com-munity conditions, and interpersonal obligation and con-flict were identified as increasing risk for reincarceration.

  • Mental Illness Along the Criminal Justice Continuum

    Journal of Forensic Social Work

    Persons with mental illnesses are overrepresented along the criminal justice continuum (police, courts, parole and probation, incarceration, and reentry), which expose individuals to risk but can also serve at points of intervention. Two predominant explanations for this overrepresentation and the evidence surrounding interventions are examined. The most common interventions at each point on the continuum and their research evidence are examined, providing an overview of promising interventions, highlighting the need for more robust research or program development, and laying the groundwork for future systematic reviews at each point on the continuum. In general, interventions have not reduced the prevalence of persons with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. Future interventions should address the individual, environmental, and structural factors exposing individuals to continued contact with the criminal justice system, requiring an interdisciplinary effort across the criminal justice and mental health workforce to address this complex problem.

  • Balancing Accessibility and Selectivity in 21st Century Public Mental Health Services: Implications for Hard to Engage Clients

    Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research

    This research highlights the importance of expanding examinations of service accessibility for hard to engage client populations to include assessments of individuals’ ability to gain entrance to services and the system’s ability to meet the service needs of particular client populations. The results of this research provide a framework to support these examinations. The increasing levels of selectivity and targeting of mental health services to particular client populations found in this study raise fundamental questions about the goals of service accessibility in 21st century public mental health services generally, and for hard-to-engage clients particularly. These findings also point to the need for examinations of the eligibility criteria and gatekeeping mechanism that are used to target services to particular client populations to determine if they are working as intended and to assess what impact these mechanisms have on hard to engage clients’ ability to gain entrance to needed services.

  • Discursive Processes Creating Team Culture and Recovery Orientation Among Housing First Providers

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    A recovery orientation is imperative in mental health services. While structural aspects of programs can influence service providers’ orientation to recovery principles, team culture as exemplified by staff attitudes, values, and beliefs is central to the incorporation of recovery principles in everyday practice. Using Fine's (1979) idioculture framework, this study examined the discursive process in team meetings at a housing first program. Researchers observed team meetings and conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with case managers from two assertive community treatment teams. Open coding identified categories indicating discursive processes grounded in the recovery language and higher-level coding derived intersubjective themes related to the use of recovery oriented culture during team meetings. Discursive processes included giving benefit of the doubt, withholding judgment, celebrating small things, and accentuating the positive and softening the negative. Using these discursive practices, the team navigated triggering events from landlords and providers by engaging in language that defused situations, normalized behaviors, and recognized residents’ successes, which served to facilitate positive discussions about residents rather than pathologizing their behaviors. Understanding the underlying processes contributing to team culture can inform and facilitate the implementation of recovery-oriented practice.

  • Examining the Relationship between Choice, Therapeutic Alliance, and Outcomes in Mental Health Services

    Journal of Personalized Medicine

    Self-determination within mental health services is increasingly recognized as an ethical imperative, but we still know little about the impact of choice on outcomes among people with severe mental illnesses. This study examines whether choice predicts outcomes and whether this relationship is mediated by therapeutic alliance. Method: The study sample of 396 participants completed a survey measuring choice, therapeutic alliance, recovery, quality of life and functioning. Multivariate analyses examined choice as a predictor of outcomes, and Sobel tests assessed alliance as a mediator. Results: Choice variables predicted recovery, quality of life and perceived outcomes. Sobel tests indicated that the relationship between choice and outcome variables was mediated by therapeutic alliance. Implications: The study demonstrates that providing more choice and opportunities for collaboration within services does improve consumer outcomes. The results also show that collaboration is dependent on the quality of the relationship between the provider and consumer.

  • "You Don't Get No Help": The Role of Community Context in Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Treatments for People with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison for High Risk Environments

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Community reentry interventions for persons with serious mental illness leaving prison have operated under the tenet that linkage to mental health services is a paramount priority to achieving successful reentry. However, these interventions have produced mixed outcomes, especially related to psychiatric or criminal recidivism. As mental health evidence–based treatments are applied to this population, other environmental or community-level factors such as social disadvantage and poverty may enable or suppress the effectiveness of such intervention models. Such factors need to be considered as possible impediments to the effectiveness of these interventions as perhaps demonstrated in trials with other populations. Explicitly addressing these factors may help improve outcomes in some cases. In others, the impact of the risk environment may be stronger than what could be overcome with clinically focused intervention.

  • Reincarceration Risk Among Men with Mental Illnesses Leaving Prison: A Risk Environment Analysis

    Community Mental Health Journal

    Reentry interventions for persons with men-tal illness leaving prison have consisted primarily of link-age to mental health services and have produced mixed results on psychiatric and criminal recidivism. These interventions primarily focus on intra-individual risk fac-tors. However, social and environmental factors may also increase risk of reincarceration by constraining choices and pro-social opportunities for community reintegration upon release from prison. In order to add to the knowledge base on understanding reincarceration risk for men with mental illnesses leaving prison, we examined interpersonal and environmental factors that exposed men to heightened risk for reincarceration. As part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of Critical Time Intervention for men with mental illness leaving prison, in-depth interviews were conducted with 28 men within 6 months of release from prison. Policies and practices at local and state levels, com-munity conditions, and interpersonal obligation and con-flict were identified as increasing risk for reincarceration.

  • Mental Illness Along the Criminal Justice Continuum

    Journal of Forensic Social Work

    Persons with mental illnesses are overrepresented along the criminal justice continuum (police, courts, parole and probation, incarceration, and reentry), which expose individuals to risk but can also serve at points of intervention. Two predominant explanations for this overrepresentation and the evidence surrounding interventions are examined. The most common interventions at each point on the continuum and their research evidence are examined, providing an overview of promising interventions, highlighting the need for more robust research or program development, and laying the groundwork for future systematic reviews at each point on the continuum. In general, interventions have not reduced the prevalence of persons with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. Future interventions should address the individual, environmental, and structural factors exposing individuals to continued contact with the criminal justice system, requiring an interdisciplinary effort across the criminal justice and mental health workforce to address this complex problem.

  • Balancing Accessibility and Selectivity in 21st Century Public Mental Health Services: Implications for Hard to Engage Clients

    Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research

    This research highlights the importance of expanding examinations of service accessibility for hard to engage client populations to include assessments of individuals’ ability to gain entrance to services and the system’s ability to meet the service needs of particular client populations. The results of this research provide a framework to support these examinations. The increasing levels of selectivity and targeting of mental health services to particular client populations found in this study raise fundamental questions about the goals of service accessibility in 21st century public mental health services generally, and for hard-to-engage clients particularly. These findings also point to the need for examinations of the eligibility criteria and gatekeeping mechanism that are used to target services to particular client populations to determine if they are working as intended and to assess what impact these mechanisms have on hard to engage clients’ ability to gain entrance to needed services.

  • Discursive Processes Creating Team Culture and Recovery Orientation Among Housing First Providers

    American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    A recovery orientation is imperative in mental health services. While structural aspects of programs can influence service providers’ orientation to recovery principles, team culture as exemplified by staff attitudes, values, and beliefs is central to the incorporation of recovery principles in everyday practice. Using Fine's (1979) idioculture framework, this study examined the discursive process in team meetings at a housing first program. Researchers observed team meetings and conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with case managers from two assertive community treatment teams. Open coding identified categories indicating discursive processes grounded in the recovery language and higher-level coding derived intersubjective themes related to the use of recovery oriented culture during team meetings. Discursive processes included giving benefit of the doubt, withholding judgment, celebrating small things, and accentuating the positive and softening the negative. Using these discursive practices, the team navigated triggering events from landlords and providers by engaging in language that defused situations, normalized behaviors, and recognized residents’ successes, which served to facilitate positive discussions about residents rather than pathologizing their behaviors. Understanding the underlying processes contributing to team culture can inform and facilitate the implementation of recovery-oriented practice.

  • Examining the Relationship between Choice, Therapeutic Alliance, and Outcomes in Mental Health Services

    Journal of Personalized Medicine

    Self-determination within mental health services is increasingly recognized as an ethical imperative, but we still know little about the impact of choice on outcomes among people with severe mental illnesses. This study examines whether choice predicts outcomes and whether this relationship is mediated by therapeutic alliance. Method: The study sample of 396 participants completed a survey measuring choice, therapeutic alliance, recovery, quality of life and functioning. Multivariate analyses examined choice as a predictor of outcomes, and Sobel tests assessed alliance as a mediator. Results: Choice variables predicted recovery, quality of life and perceived outcomes. Sobel tests indicated that the relationship between choice and outcome variables was mediated by therapeutic alliance. Implications: The study demonstrates that providing more choice and opportunities for collaboration within services does improve consumer outcomes. The results also show that collaboration is dependent on the quality of the relationship between the provider and consumer.

  • Examining the Impact of Mental Illness and Substance Use on Time till Reincarceration in a County Jail

    Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research

    This paper examines the role that substance use and serious mental illness play in criminal justice recidivism by examining the time to return to jail for a cohort of people admitted to jail in 2003 (N = 16,434). These analyses found that people with serious mental illness alone experienced the longest time in the community before returning to jail and were found to have a risk of re-incarceration that did not differ significantly from individuals with no psychiatric or substance use diagnoses. People with co-occurring disorders had a risk of re-incarceration that was over 40 % higher than that of individuals with no diagnosis.

Positions

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

  • Society for Social Work Research

    Member

HB 2

3.5(1)

HUMANBEH 2

2.5(1)

MSWPFGS 200

3.5(1)