The Meaning and Impact of Limited Literacy for People with Serious Mental Illness

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管事实上，有限的识字率已被发现是一个强有力的预测健康结果和卫生保健利用模式的人口和健康状况有限的研究已经检查了识字和严重精神疾病之间的关系。提高我们对患有各种精神疾病的人中识字能力有限的模式和普遍性的理解，是我们理解精神疾病患者生活中识字能力有限的影响和意义的必要步骤。虽然“人人享有社区生活”的愿景已经明确阐述（卫生和公众服务部，2003年），但在恢复和社区充分参与方面仍然存在障碍。作为其中一个障碍，识字率有限的作用没有得到充分的审查。提高我们对有限识字的作用的理解将使我们了解严重精神疾病患者（SMI）所经历的差异以及减少这些差异的努力。这些知识还将为治疗和服务提供的发展提供信息，以最好地满足识字有限者的需求，并最终提高精神疾病患者改善健康和支持社区充分参与的能力。本研究的目的是增加我们的了解，使用公共，城市心理健康门诊服务的人之间的识字率有限的流行，并检查机制，告知我们对这些关系的理解。我们将研究有限的识字能力如何影响患有严重精神疾病的人的生活。具体目标是： 一曰：更全面地评估在城市公共心理健康门诊接受服务的人的识字能力，包括阅读、听力和算术能力。目标二：了解精神疾病、识字能力有限和精神卫生服务利用之间的关系，并探讨其机制。 精神疾病患者的康复。 这项研究的结果将为多个研究领域提供信息和扩展，包括精神卫生服务研究，精神病康复和恢复以及扫盲和教育。此外，这些发现将提供必要的知识，供那些为精神疾病患者制定计划和政策的人使用，以促进精神疾病患者的健康，健康和参与。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the fact that limited literacy has been found to be a strong predictor of health outcomes and health care utilization patterns across populations and health conditions limited research has examined the relationships among literacy and serious mental illness. Increasing our understanding of the patterns and prevalence of limited literacy among people living with the full range of psychiatric disorders is a necessary step to our understanding of the impact and meaning of limited literacy in the lives of people with mental illness. While the vision of "a life in the community for all" has been clearly articulated (Department of Health and Human Services, 2003) barriers to recovery and full community participation remain. The role of limited literacy, as one such barrier, has been poorly examined. Increasing our understanding of the role of limited literacy will inform our understandings of disparities experienced by people with serious mental illness (SMI) and efforts to reduce these disparities. This knowledge will also inform the development of treatment and service provision to best meet the needs of those with limited literacy and ultimately improve the capabilities of people living with mental illness to improve health and support full community participation. The goal of this study is to increase our understanding of the prevalence of limited literacy among people using public, urban mental health outpatient services and to examine mechanisms that inform our understanding of these relationships. We will examine the ways in which limited literacy affects the lives of people living with serious mental illness. The specific aims are: Aim 1: to more fully assess the domains of literacy, including reading, aural, and numeracy, among people receiving services at public, urban outpatient mental health clinics. Aim 2: to understand the relationships, and explore mechanisms, among psychiatric disorders, limited literacy and mental health service utilization Aim 3: to examine the impact of limited literacy on the lives and recovery of people living with mental illness. The results of this study will inform and expand multiple fields of research including mental health services research, psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery, and literacy and education. In addition, these findings will provide needed knowledge to be used by those developing programs for people with mental illness and policies to promote health, wellness and participation for people with mental illness.