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Center
Abstract
The National Research and Training Center (NRTC)
on Psychiatric Disability is a five-year program of
research, training, technical assistance and
dissemination activities designed to promote
self-determination among people with psychiatric
disabilities. It is located in the Department of
Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago
(UIC). The overarching premise of the Center's
activities is that persons with psychiatric
disabilities have the right to maximal independence,
which grows out of making choices regarding the
decisions that affect their lives. Center projects
are comprised of five core areas: choice in
treatment decision-making; economic
self-sufficiency; maintaining access to desired
services under managed care; career development
through real jobs for real wages; and strengthening
self-determination skills and self-advocacy. Project
activities are being implemented by
multidisciplinary workgroups comprised of people
with psychiatric disabilities, families, service
providers, state agency administrators, researchers,
and Center staff. Outcome and management tools being
developed for each core area assess key outcomes and
program policies related to increased
self-determination. In the third year, a
collaboratively-planned, state-of-the-science
conference on self-determination and psychiatric
disabilities will be convened and a comprehensive
report will be published. Advanced technology has
been incorporated into each project's objectives and
all training and dissemination activities.
Multimedia formats are being used to ensure
widespread accessibility of Center products and
materials to people with psychiatric disabilities,
families, service providers, researchers, and other
stakeholders. Through rigorous research and advanced
technology, Center projects are culminating in a
substantial state-of-the-science knowledge base
about self-determination for persons with
psychiatric disabilities.
Research
Projects
Training Projects
Center Staff
Director: Judith A. Cook, Ph.D.
Managing Director: Jessica Jonikas, M.A.
Director of Research: Lisa Razzano, Ph.D.
Director of Training: Susan Pickett-Schenk, Ph.D.
Director of Dissemination: Edie Bamberger, B.A.
Director of Technology: Genevieve Fitzgibbon, B.A.
 The
contents of this Web site were developed under a grant from the National
Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S.
Department of Education, and the Center
for Mental Health Services, Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. However these
contents do not necessarily represent the policies or views of
either agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.
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