The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #58276

George Lutz, PhD, North Chicago VA Medical Center, 3001 N. Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064, 847-688-1900 x83631, george.lutz@med.va.gov, Kendon J. Conrad, PhD, Midwest Center for Health Services and Policy Research, Hines VA Hospital, 151 H, Hines, IL 60141, and Pat Lynch, BA, Independent Positive Living Under Supervision (I-PLUS) Agency, 109 South Genesee Street, Waukegan, IL 60085.

Successful community living for people with severe mental illness often means coping with problems of lack of social support, legal problems, substance abuse problems and lack of financial support in addition to their mental illness. Traditional psychosocial treatments sometimes do not deal directly with problems that the seriously mentally ill person has involving their finances.

Our three year study focuses on the impact of incorporating a money management program into the traditional psychiatric treatment model for a group of seriously mentally ill veterans. Using a randomized clinical trial we have randomly assigned 160 patient volunteers to either an experimental or control group. The control group receives customary psychiatric treatment while the experimental group receives customary care plus money management.

Using a graphic logic model this presentation will describe the theory and assumptions related to mental illness and money management and explore interventions and treatment outcomes. Specifically we will describe the resources such as coordination of care between treatment providers and the representative payee that are needed to facilitate positive treatment outcomes. We will also describe the processes stabilizing income flow, improving treatment adherence, and skill development that lead to improved housing stability, reduction of hospitalization, decreased psychiatric symptomatology and improved health related quality of life.

Learning Objectives:

1. Increase understanding of the relationship between money management and psychiatric treatment in the chronically mentally ill population. 2. Be able to identify seriously mentally ill clients who need money management
• Participants will be aware of the impact of money management on treatment outcomes for seriously mentally ill people.

Keywords: Homelessness, Mental Illness

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.