Critical Time Intervention

Project ASPIRE presented at ABCT conference

Clinicians and researchers from the Institute for Community Living, Inc., presented a poster evaluating the effectiveness of Project ASPIRE at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies held last month in New York City. Project ASPIRE is an award-winning SAMHSA-funded demonstration program that applies CTI and other evidence based approaches to help women with mental health and substance use problems successfully transition from a homeless shelter to stable life in the community. For more information on the program or the evaluation, contact Dr. Elizabeth Cleek at elizabeth.cleek@iclinc.net

Columbia approves CTI course

Columbia University will offer the first academic course on CTI to social work graduate students. Entitled, Facilitating Continuity of Care for Vulnerable Populations in Critical Transitions: Applications of CTI, the course is part of the school’s advanced generalist practice sequence. Dr. Fang-pei Chen, an assistant professor at the school, plans to offer the seven week course during the spring semester of 2010. The course will address risk factors and strengths of a variety of vulnerable populations in transition; introduce the CTI model, its practice skills, and supervision; and explore its broader applications. For the final assignment, students will be asked to conceive and design a transitional service model adapting the approach and strategies employed in CTI. For further information, please contact Dr. Chen at fc2208@columbia.edu

Web-based training evaluation report released

The Center for Social Innovation has issued a final evaluation report on its NIMH-funded effort to develop and pilot test a web-based CTI training and implementation support model for social workers and other staff working with homeless persons. This innovative project, which brought together experts in CTI, adult and team-based learning theories and multi-media technology, was the initial phase in what is hoped to be an ongoing initiative intended to make web-based training on CTI and related interventions broadly available to providers and to evaluate the effectiveness of such training. According to the report, initial results are quite promising; high levels of completion, knowledge development and satisfaction were reported by most trainees. Most encouraging, however, is that 80% of trainees reported that they had actively begun to implement CTI in their agencies within 30 days of completing the course. The complete report is available here.

1 Comment October 30, 2009

CTI symposium features international collaboration

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.

Dutch CTI team visits NYC

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.

North Carolina Practice Improvement Collaborative considers CTI dissemination

Dan Herman, CTI research director, met on May 29 with the mental health subcommittee of the North Carolina Practice Improvement Collaborative in Raleigh to describe the model, present research findings and discuss way in which CTI might be usefully implemented in the state’s mental health system. Reporting to the state’s Director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, the Collaborative provides guidance in determining the future evidence based services and supports that will be provided through the public system.

CTI informs pilot ACT transition model in New York State

act_logo For persons with severe mental illness, the transition from assertive community treatment (ACT) to less intensive services is a vulnerable period during which enhanced support is especially vital. The ACT Transitions Model, adapted in part from CTI, is a framework designed to enhance the coordination and continuity of care of service recipients who are moving from ACT to less intensive services. A workgroup of stakeholders developed the model to be delivered in the following three phases over a nine-month period: (1) Transition Planning, (2) Try-Out, and (3) Fine Tuning, Transfer of Care and Follow-up. The stakeholder workgroup included ACT staff and consumers as well as representatives of the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The model will be piloted and evaluated over the next two years. The project is a New York State Office of Mental Health initiative funded by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation (PI, Molly Finnerty, M.D.) For further information, contact Jennifer Manuel at coevjim@omh.state.ny.us or 212.543.5164.

Using a brief CTI to promote continuity of care after inpatient hospitalization

psych-svscover Lisa Dixon of the University of Maryland and colleagues have published a new experimental study assessing the effectiveness of a brief three-month adaptation of CTI in enhancing continuity of outpatient psychiatric treatment for persons with serious mental illness following discharge from inpatient care. Among the findings were that, compared with the control group, persons assigned to receive the intervention had significantly fewer days between their hospital discharge and their first outpatient service. The authors conclude that the intervention successfully promoted post-discharge continuity of care, but caution that the limited association between improved continuity and improved patient outcomes requires further study.

Canadian best practices portal adds CTI

canada 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.