Interventions and Services for Older Adults with SMI

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this competitive renewal application for a "Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient- Oriented Research" is to support the next phase in the development and testing of interventions and services for older persons with serious mental illness (SMI), and to further advance the development of early career investigators in geriatric mental health services research. The goals of this award are: (1) to improve mental and physical health outcomes for older adults with SMI by developing and testing integrated models of psychosocial rehabilitation and health promotion; (2) to improve mental and physical health outcomes for older adults with SMI by developing and testing interventions that enhance consumer activation, shared decision-making, and self-management; and (3) to contribute to the development of early career investigators in geriatric mental health services research by providing mentored research opportunities and by developing innovative models of multi-site, web-assisted mentoring programs. These objectives will be achieved through an integrated career development plan, research plan, and mentoring plan. The career development plan will enhance research skills through collaborations with experts in health care decision support and shared decision-making. In addition to completing data collection and analyses for several ongoing studies, two newly funded studies in the research plan include an R34 to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated mental and physical health self-management intervention, and an R01 study of a health promotion and fitness intervention. The proposed pilot study supported by this award will evaluate the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a 12-week Consumer Activation and Self-Management Training (CAST) intervention in improving consumer activation, self- management, and physical and mental health outcomes for 60 older adults (age 50+) with SMI, randomized to CAST or Usual Care. The mentoring plan includes mentored research opportunities, as well as a description of an innovative, collaborative, multi-site, web-based mentoring program designed to address the national shortfall in geriatric mental health services researchers. This integrated plan directly builds on progress achieved in the current award. This application addresses a profound lack of research on effective services for the rapidly growing population of aging persons with serious mental illness.