ORGANIZATION AND FINANCING OF CARE FOR MENTAL PATIENTS

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The Rutgers Center for Research on the Organization and Financing of Care for the Severely Mentally Ill provides a structure for research and training in mental health services and policy. It combines a focus on the consequences of mental illness and mental health care for the individual with an examination of the broader systems that shape those outcomes and the mental health services system, including financing, the structure of mental health treatment programs, networks of family and social support, and broader health and social services. Activities are organized under the auspices of four interdisciplinary research groups. The Successful Community Living Group conducts financial, organizational, and behavioral studies on the impact and cost effectiveness of innovative community mental health services and programs on clients and their families; particular attention is focused on minority and disadvantaged clients and families. The Organization and Financing Incentives in Treatment Programs Group assesses how modifications in the financing and organization incentives of public and private mental health service systems affect patterns of hospital utilization, hospital linkage with outpatient care and other service systems, and the quality of clients' lives. The Service Systems Integration Group examines how the mental health, welfare, corrections and other systems that become involved with persons with mental illness can best be coordinated to improve levels of functioning and the well- being of clients. The Managed Care and Rationing Group evaluates how ongoing health care policy reform influences the level, mix, and quality of health and mental health services received by the severely mentally ill. Five research consulting teams focus on different aspects of program evaluation and ensure that the relevant dimensions of each problem are addressed in a rigorous manner. The teams consult on client well-being, family well being and burden, multi-cultural diversity, cost- effectiveness and policy appraisal. To conduct these studies, collaborative partnerships have been created with a variety of institutions and organizations: the state mental health authorities of New York and New Jersey; mental health treatment organizations; and advocacy groups. Student training faculty development programs foster interdisciplinary research collaboration, provide cross-training in the empirical and conceptual methods of other disciplines, encourage the development of multi-investigator projects that examine problems at many levels and from a range of perspectives, and encourage innovative strategies for disseminating research findings. A major goal of the Center is to help develop a critical mass of researchers in the mental health services field who contribute to improve treatment and policy.