Mental Health Resources from the NIDILRR Grantee Community

For people with mental health disorders, living and participating in the community may be beneficial to their quality of life. However, they may face barriers to community living, employment, education, or community participation, such as stigma, lack of financial resources, access to mental health services, reliable transportation, and social isolation. Removing these barriers may help people with mental health disorders to participate fully in their communities and improve their quality of life. NARIC’s information specialists are often asked for information and resources that may assist people with mental health disorders participate in their communities. We would like to highlight some of the consumer products by the NIDILRR community for people with disabilities, older adults, their families, and the professionals who support them. These consumer products may include factsheets, guides, calendars, comics, courses, and more.

Below, you will find just a few examples of evidence-based consumer products produced by the NIDILRR community:

• The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Health and Function of People with Psychiatric Disabilities is dedicated to advancing knowledge and the use of innovative models to promote the health, recovery, and employment for people with mental health conditions. This RRTC provides various resources, including on a toolkit for peer support specialists in supported employment programs, research articles on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and daily life of adults with behavioral health disorders, and more. The RRTC also provides tools that help promote health and wellbeing and self-directed recovery. The Center’s Solutions Suite for Health & Recovery offers tools, curricula, and implementation manuals for free and immediate use in mental health centers, peer-run programs, or in one’s own life. Finally, the RRTC offers the Participatory Action Research (PAR) Podcast, an educational podcast series that features youth and adults in mental health recovery reflecting on the roles they play in the RRTC’s research, along with their suggestions of strategies to promote inclusion in all stages of research.
• The Learning and Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (Transitions ACR) develops and shares new knowledge about core concepts, interventions, and policies to greatly improve the transition to employment for youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions. This Center uses research and knowledge translation to help ensure that policies, programs, and supports for transition-age youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions are effective in helping them build the strong cornerstones to support successful long-term adult work lives. Transitions ACR provides a series of blogs written by and for youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions and their families. The Center’s YouTube Channel, Comeback TV, is a show made by young adults for young adults with mental health conditions sharing resources to help them on their path to successful independent lives. Finally, Transitions ACR provides a list of resources that include support networks, national resources, other NIDILRR-funded projects, and helpful reports and resources on a variety of topics related to youth and young adults with mental health conditions.
• The Temple University RRTC on Community Living and Participation of People with Serious Mental Illness (TU Collaborative) advances the development of interventions that maximize community living and participation of individuals with severe mental health conditions through research and knowledge translation activities in partnership with consumers and other stakeholders. It serves as a national resource center for people with severe mental health conditions, their families, service and support providers, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. For more than fifteen years, this Center has produced a variety of resources that include research reports, monographs, policy papers, toolkits, field reports, policy recommendations, and compendiums of successful community inclusion and practices that assist people with serious mental health conditions, their families, providers, and other stakeholders to either participate in their communities or start their own community participation initiatives. Topics include general community resources, employment, education, housing, parenting, physical activity and recreation, civic participation, and more. The TU Collaborative produces the #CollabChats podcast series to share the latest cutting-edge community inclusion research from the TU Collaborative and partner centers. Finally, the TU Collaborative creates yearly calendars that assist people with serious mental health conditions participate in their communities.

To learn more about these and other products from the NIDILRR community, contact NARIC’s information specialists.