Oral

Most adults with mental illness who receive services in public health systems also experience poverty, trauma, physical illness and other complex conditions. Strength-based screening and assessment is critical to engage these clients in services. This session will explore innovative screening and assessment approaches that are used to refer clients into behavioral health and primary care services. Research and practice perspectives address mental illness and poverty, cultural competence, measurement of mental health recovery and organizational factors associated with successful engagement of mental health clients into services.

Session Objectives: Identify the psychometric properties of the Modified Mini Screen (MMS) and optimal decision rules for using this tool with welfare populations to support mental health referrals. Discuss the impact of using a mental health screening tool on access to mental health and primary care services for SSDI beneficiaries and people with physical health issues. Describe the psychometric properties of a measure of mental health recovery. Discuss possible uses of this measure for evaluating client level recovery.