The UPenn Collaborative Integration Training

July 29-30, 2010, Austin, TX

USPRA Texas and University of Pennsylvania Collaborative on Community Integration Studies present: The UPenn Collaborative. The UPenn Collaborative is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

http://www.upennrrtc.org/about/index.php

To conduct rigorous research into the effective practices, programs, and policies that promote community integration and provide training and technical assistance opportunities that utilize those research findings.  The UPenn Collaborative is offering this opportunity throughout the country, and would like to work closely with local USPRA chapters to identify interested psychiatric rehabilitation programs, community mental health centers, and consumer-operated programs in several sections of the nation who would like to participate.  Richard Baron, M.A., is a Collaborative Consultant at the U Penn Collaborative will be working with us on this project.

This is a fantastic opportunity for USPRA TEXAS and for the state as a whole. There are many exciting, revolutionary initiatives taking place and in development in Texas through Texas Mental Health Transformation (TMHT) Director Sam Shore's leadership and with Wendy Latham and Dennis Bach's work with via HOPE Mental Health Resource Network www.viahope.org. This is an opportunity to support current initiatives by targetting and working with public and private PSR providers, stakeholders and consumer run organizations (CRO) with a focus on supporting the development and integrating a recovery model into the communities and constituencies that we work with.

The UPenn Collaborative is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research http://www.upennrrtc.org/ and http://www.upennrrtc.org/about/index.php to conduct rigorous research into the effective practices, programs, and policies that promote community integration and provide training and technical assistance opportunities that utilize those research findings. The UPenn Collaborative is offering this opportunity throughout the country, and would like to work closely with local USPRA chapters to identify interested psychiatric rehabilitation programs, community mental health centers, and consumer-operated programs in several sections of the nation who would like to participate. Richard Baron, M.A., is a Collaborative Consultant at the U Penn Collaborative will be working with us on this project.

Richard Baron is a researcher and trainer in the mental health field at the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently the Director of Knowledge Translation Activities both for the NIDRR-funded UPenn Collaborative on Community Integration of Persons with Psychiatric Disabilities, and for the NIMH-funded Center for Behavioral Health Services and Criminal Justice Research (http://www.cbhs-cjr.rutgers.edu/), a joint project of Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania. The Center for Behavioral Health Services and Criminal Justice Research develops and disseminates research into the issues faced by people with mental illnesses who have been in contact with local, state, and federal criminal justice systems. Previously, Mr. Baron was the Director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ grant making program for health and human services agencies serving adults in the five-county Philadelphia metropolitan area, and prior to that served for twenty-five years as the Executive Director of Matrix Research Institute, in Philadelphia, where his work as a Principal Investigator and Project Director on two dozen federally funded research and training programs focused on employment for people with serious mental illnesses. Mr. Baron is also the recipient of two NIDRR Switzer independent research Fellowships, both also focusing on strategies to expand employment opportunities for people with serious mental illnesses.

"Community Integration is the opportunity to live in the community and be valued for one's uniqueness and abilities, like everyone else. Community integration encompasses: housing, employment, education, leisure/recreation, social roles, peer support, health status, citizenship, self-determination, and religion/spirituality. Community integration (or, the opportunity to live like everyone else) should result in community presence and participation of people with psychiatric disabilities similar to that of all others without a disability label (Salzer, 2006)."

The UPENN COLLABORATIVE is devoted to promoting the community integration vision as it pertains to people with psychiatric disabilities, to ensure that rights become reality. It will lead the mental health field in identifying and eliminating barriers to community integration and in developing supports which facilitate community integration outcomes and bring about meaningful changes in the lives of people with psychiatric disabilities. The Collaborative focuses its efforts on the following areas: Community Integration Concept and History, Employment, Housing, Education, Citizenship, Language and Community Integration, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Olmstead decision, Social Roles, Peer Support, Self-Determination, Discrimination and Spirituality/Religion.

There are two important considerations that Texas psychiatric rehabilitation, integration and recovery which provider participants should bear in mind.

First, the principles and approaches of the community integration movement are increasingly at the center of state and local thinking about how to facilitate wellness and recovery. Community integration’s emphasis on insuring that ‘each individual has the opportunity to participate in community life like anyone else’ has suggested new practices and programs to help consumers engage more easily with the individuals and organizations available to them. PSR agencies can play a key role in this regard. The training is designed not only to explore principles and program models, but to provide participants with some guidance on how to make community integration a reality.

Second, the UPenn Collaborative approach to facilitating changes in programs and practices is fully informed by research indicating that training alone is minimally effective. UPenn's approach is more comprehensive than most educational programs in that it links short-term training (in a one-day or two-day format) to longer-term and more intensive technical assistance, over several months. The six to twelve agencies participating in each regional program will be required to commit themselves to both the training and the technical assistance, in an effort to generate real behavioral change in agency activities.