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EXAMPLES OF BEST PRACTICE MODELS FOR
Clubhouse Models - Our Place, Tucson Our Place was established in 1988 to provide psychosocial, pre-vocational and vocational rehabilitation services for adults with serious mental illness residing in Pima County. The program utilizes the "Fountain House" clubhouse model where members are engaged in every aspect of the clubhouse operations. Through their work in the clubhouse, members build concentration, self-esteem, the ability to make decisions, and reduce isolation. Our Place has a total annual budget of $311,000, and is funded directly by CPSA. The program serves approximately 165 members per month, and has a census of 60 people per day. SAMHSA is currently funding a five-year research project to determine the effectiveness of community support services in helping adults with serious mental illness. The report hopes to assess how the clubhouse program affects members with respect to obtaining and keeping paid work, quality of life, emotional and physical well being, educational attainments, hospitalization rates, and satisfaction with services.
Ocotillo Program The Ocotillo Program is a crisis group home providing short-term therapeutic services to 15 adults with serious mental illness. Services include counseling, behavior management, psychosocial rehabilitation, home health aids, nutrition counseling, mobility assistance, exercise or physical therapy, and hearing and speech aids. Staff offer services 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The program is reported to improve outcomes associated with crisis stabilization, rates of hospitalizations, medication management, and connections to aftercare and community services. Of the 447 clients who used Ocotillo, only 57 (13 percent) have been hospitalized during the period from 1997 to 1999. Of that, 56 percent had one admission, and 26 percent had two admissions.
Peer Mentor Program - Warm Line The Peer Mentor Program serves adults with serious mental illness both as mentors and as those who utilize the services of the warm line. The Program offers people with serious mental illness an opportunity to become involved in community-based mutual self-help activities. The core of the program is the Warm Line, where trained consumers (mentors) answer telephone calls from persons with mental illness who are looking for conversation and support. The program also provides peer support, socialization, hospital visitation, an Internet discussion group, and social events. The program has a yearly budget of $150,000 and receives 300 to 470 calls per month using 12 to 20 mentors. The program is able to measure consumer satisfaction through follow-up calls and mentor/volunteer satisfaction through burnout and symptom rates.
ALFA - Arizona Level of Functional Assessment The ALFA Service Level Checklist is a multi-domain, nine-scale instrument that is based on the Colorado Client Assessment Record (CCAR). ALFA is used by clinicians predict the level of care and case management needed by a client. ALFA can also be used as an outcome and monitoring instrument by comparing ALFA scores as treatment progresses. The original CCAR was developed by Dr. Richard Ellis of the State of Colorado and is used by a number of states, including Colorado, Hawaii, Texas, and North Carolina.
Access to Community Care and Effective Services and Supports (ACCESS) The ACCESS Program is an innovative interdepartmental effort to test the impact of systems integration on outcomes for homeless people with mental illnesses. CMHS awarded 5-year cooperative agreements to nine states in FY 1993. (Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington) The project will end in December 1999. Interim observations reveal that the projects are successful at getting people off the streets and helping them stay in housing, and that drug use decreased by 14.3 percent, commission of minor crimes decreased by 41.7 percent, and use of outpatient psychiatric services increased by 30 percent.
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