• To conduct services research on policy and planning issues relevant to a public mental health system on:
  
  1. issues of particular concern to state and local government agencies with responsibilities for the care and support of persons with mental and substance abuse disorders;
  
  2. new paradigms that enable the broadening of perspectives on critical components of innovative programs and on their efficacy as measured by responsiveness to consumers’ expressed desires and concerns.
  
  
• Specific approaches
  1.The conduct of quantitative and qualitative services research on problems and policy issues of a public mental health system.
  
  2.The development of statistical and research methodologies to enhance the appraisal of the cost-effectiveness of health services and new interventions.
  
  3. Involvement of stakeholders in selecting research topics, conducting studies, interpreting findings and disseminating results.
  

The current director of SSRD is Carole Siegel, Ph.D. SSRD is a multi-disciplinary services research group of 12 senior researchers. Staff includes doctoral-level anthropologists, economists, psychologists, health educators, mathematicians, statisticians, a clinical social worker, and research associates. Division projects, in addition to NYS Office of Mental Health funding, have been supported by numerous grants from NIMH, AHRQ, SAMHSA, as well as from foundations and other agency grants.

SSRD is comprised of three laboratories that work both independently and collaboratively.

The Statistical Sciences Laboratory, is directed by Eugene Laska, Ph. D. The laboratory's research portfolio includes development of statistical methods for the design and analysis of clinical trials (cost-effectiveness analysis; optimal design of experiments, ordered inferential procedures, cure models, synergy) and design and analysis of epidemiological studies (single sample methods for estimating population size and rates; propensity score models.) The emphasis of the computer scientists is statistical computing, data acquisition and data base organization. The laboratory also provides statistical consultation services to mental health research investigators. Studies have also focused on methodologies to estimate population sizes, measurements of cultural competency, and extended capacity estimates to provide mental health services related to disaster planning.

The Social Sciences Research and Innovation Laboratory is directed by Mary Jane Alexander, Ph.D. Its major research thrust is incorporation into research an understanding of recovery, healing, social integration and negotiation of multiple health systems from the consumer perspective. Program level activities include ethnographic analyses of why programs work and their potential for replication. On the system level, the laboratory has collaborated with state and local government and the private sector to develop solutions to the barriers faced by persons with mental disorders in negotiating multiple systems, particularly chemical dependency, housing and criminal justice. The laboratory has developed screens for co occurring disorders and has recently received an NIMH grant to use the economic framework of Capabilities to develop a Center to Study Recovery in Social Contexts.

The Analytic Policy Support Laboratory, directed by Judith Samuels, Ph.D. has a major focus on children's services. On the program level, the group is testing the effectiveness of programs that blend mental health and social supports for mothers and their children. Study is being made of the impact of a Critical Time Intervention and housing process for homeless families, and for adolescents exiting foster care. On a system level, applied cost and cost-effective analyses is being used to compare supported housing with community residences, and to study varied forms of managed care.

• Selected Projects - Cross-laboratory collaboration
• Center on Excellence in Culturally Competent Mental Health
  Carole Siegel, Gary Haugland, Lenora Reid-Rose, Jennifer Hernandez
  Developing techinques to adapt evidence-based practices in support of cultural competency in mental health service delivery.
  
  
• Cultural Competency: Carole Siegel, Gary Haugland
  1. Development of a framework and indicators of cultural competency
  2. Development of instruments to measure organizational level cultural competency
  
• Homelessness: Kim Hopper, Carole Siegel, Judy Samuels, Gary Haugland, Kris Jones
  1. Ethnographic study of the residential instability patterns of homeless persons with mental illness.
  2. Housing outcomes of persons in New York/New York Housing
  3. Effectiveness of two housing alternatives for formally homeless persons with mental illness: supported housing and group homes
  4. Housing and service needs assessment in NY City HPD shelters
  5. Conduct and analysis of street counts of the unsheltered homeless in NYC
  
• Policy Impact Analysis: Carole Siegel, Kris Jones, Judy Samuels
  1. Estimation of premium increments under parity legislation.
  2. Estimation of the potential for cost shifting from private to state under parity legislation.
  3. Estimation of the additional capacity requirements of the mental health system to meet the needs of persons exposed to disasters
  4. Simulation of the impact of the Medicare Modernization Act on persons dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare with severe mental illness on their access to medications and the cost shifting amongst payers of these medications.

The pages of this web site will provide an over-view of our research projects and their policy implications, as well as newly developed research and service instruments.

New York State
Office of Mental Health


Nathan Kline Institute


SSRD