Filed under: international
A meeting was held in Cordoba, Argentina, on November 26-27, 2012 of the leadership group of RedeAmericas, one of five NIMH-funded hubs for international mental health services research. Each hub serves as a center for multidisciplinary activities across a specific region. RedeAmericas research focuses on the mental health treatment gap in six Latin American cities – Rio de Janeiro, Medellin, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Neuquén and Cordoba. The Cordoba meeting brought together more than 40 people from all six sites. Discussions focused on planning for a multi-site randomized trial of Critical Time Intervention-Task Shifting (CTI-TS), an adaptation of CTI that engages qualified workers and peer-mentors to assume community oriented tasks from health and mental health units, and to provide these services in the community. The planning meeting preceded the 2012 Latin American Public Health Conference at which RedeAmericas investigators played a key role, including a presentation by Dr. Ruben Alvarado of the University of Chile in Santiago about CTI-TS.
December 27, 2012
Investigators from four countries gathered on September 22 to describe their current research at a symposium held at the World Congress of Psychiatry in Buenos Aries, Argentina, sponsored by the World Psychiatric Association. Participants included Dan Herman (US), Ezra Susser (US), Graham Thornicroft (UK), Elie Valencia (Brazil), Judith Wolff (Netherlands). Thornicroft and colleagues are conducting a randomized trial of CTI with persons with mental illness being released from correctional facilities in London and Manchester, while Valencia reported on work his group is carrying out using CTI in the favelas of Rio De Janeiro. Wolff leads a large multi-site randomized trial testing an adapted version of the model with homeless persons and women who have experienced interpersonal violence.
September 23, 2011
The Netherlands Center for Social Care Research at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, with funding from the national government, has launched two randomized controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of CTI in Dutch services for homeless people and victims of domestic violence. The studies investigate whether combining Critical Time Intervention (CTI) with the typical strengths-based social work approach is more effective than the strengths-based methodology alone in improving housing and other outcomes. The homeless sector trial will include adult clients of 9 shelters, examining whether CTI leads to fewer days of homelessness (primary outcome measure). The trial in the women’s shelter sector targets adult female clients of 8 facilities who have experienced violent abuse and examines how CTI affects their quality of life (primary outcome measure). Teams have been trained in the interventions and data collection is set to begin shortly. The study is led by Dr. Judith Wolf with collaborators Renee de Vet, Danielle Lako, and Marielle Beijersbergen. A kickoff meeting (see photo), held on November 18 in Utrecht, was attended by service providers, researchers and CTI experts from the Netherlands and the US including Dan Herman of Columbia University.
December 3, 2010
Mental health workers and local officials from the Netherlands in met in March with researchers from Columbia University and several provider organizations involved with CTI implementation in NYC. Part of an ongoing collaboration between researchers and providers in the US and the Netherlands, this was the third visit to the city by Dutch providers interested in learning about CTI and other innovative services for homeless persons. A national CTI conference in the Netherlands is tentatively planned for November 2010. A link to the Netherlands CTI website is here. (photo by Eve Vagg)
April 12, 2010
The Institute on Psychiatric Services, an annual meeting of community-based psychiatrists organized by the American Psychiatric Association, was the site of a well-attended symposium on CTI held on October 11, 2009. The symposium, organized by Bert van Hemert of the ParnassiaBavo Group and Leiden University in the Netherlands and Dan Herman of New York State Psychiatric Institute & Columbia University, featured presentations by researchers studying adaptations of CTI in diverse settings including US prisons (Jeffrey Draine) and community-based mental health clinics in Rio De Janeiro (Elie Valencia). Other speakers included Lewis Opler, who reported on the impact of CTI on psychiatric symptoms in two US trials. Sarah Conover of New York State Psychiatric Institute & Columbia University served as discussant.
October 14, 2009
A team of mental health workers and researchers from the Netherlands visited during the week of September 15 to meet with staff from Columbia University and several provider organizations involved with CTI implementation in New York City. Adaptation and testing of the CTI model has been underway for several years in the Netherlands where there are currently two large-scale research trials currently in progress. We anticipate ongoing collaboration as these projects progress. For those who read Dutch, the Netherlands CTI website is here.
September 22, 2009
CTI has been added to the Best Practices Portal for Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention. The portal, maintained by the Public Health Agency of Canada, is intended to improve policy and program decision-making by enabling access to the best available evidence on chronic disease prevention and health promotion.
April 2, 2009
German researchers based at Ulm University are conducting a multi-site randomized trial testing a brief intervention intended to ehance continuity of care for high utilizers of psychiatric services following discharge from inpatient treatment. Although the research team notes that the study was partially inspired by CTI, the model they are employing differs from CTI in its emphasis on discharge planning and follow-up monitoring rather than provision of direct staff support during the post-discharge period. The researchers hope that the intervention will lead to a reduction in future inpatient stays and better quality of life and clinical outcome. Details on the study design were reported recently in BMC Health Services Research.
January 16, 2009
