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Unmet Needs of People with Serious Mental Illness: Perspectives from Certified Peer Specialists

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Abstract

Examine the unmet needs of people with serious mental illness (SMI) from the perspective of certified peer specialists. 267 certified peer specialists from 38 states completed an online survey (female [73%], 50.9 [SD = 12] years, and non-Hispanic White [79.8%]). Many respondents reported a primary mental health diagnoses (n = 200), 22 respondents reported their diagnosis as schizophrenia spectrum disorder (11%), 46 respondents reported bipolar disorder (22.1%), 47 respondents reported major depressive disorder (22.6%), 29 respondents reported post-traumatic stress disorder (13.9%), 27 respondents reported alcohol/substance use disorder (13%), 2 respondents reported personality disorder (1%), and 12 reported “other” (5.8%). A mixed methods convergence analysis integrated quantitative with qualitative data. Social isolation (n = 160, 59.9%) and feeling lonely (n = 159, 59.6%) were the most highly endorsed unmet need, followed by the need to address chronic health conditions (n = 80, 30%), prevent mental health hospitalization (n = 71, 23.6%), and prevent drug use (n = 66, 24.7%). Four themes emerged: need to address basic necessities, loneliness and social isolation, hope, and addiction. Addressing loneliness and social isolation were identified as the primary unmet needs among people with SMI. Addressing co-morbid health conditions may simultaneously impact other unmet needs. Hope is an important intervention target. Initial insights from this study can be used to guide researchers’ efforts to incorporate certified peer specialists perspectives in developing programs to meet the needs of people with SMI. Future research using participatory research methods can further examine these initial insights.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Health Promotion Research Center at Dartmouth, funded by a grant from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Cooperative Agreement U48 DP005018). Additional support was received from the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH073553–11). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Dr. Muralidharan is supported by VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Career Development Award IK2RX002339.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, 2 Pillsbury Street, Suite 401, Concord, NH, 03301, USA

    Karen L. Fortuna, Joelle Ferron, Sarah I. Pratt & Kelly A. Aschbrenner

  2. CDC Health Promotion Research Center at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, 03766, USA

    Karen L. Fortuna, Joelle Ferron, Sarah I. Pratt & Kelly A. Aschbrenner

  3. VISN 5 MIRECC Baltimore VA Medical Center Annex, 10 N Greene St, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA

    Anjana Muralidharan

  4. University of New Hampshire, 105 Main St, Durham, NH, 03824, USA

    Ashley M. Williams

  5. Pat Deegan, PhD & Associates LLC, P.O. Box 208, Byfield, MA, 01922, USA

    Patricia E. Deegan

  6. Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities, 1700 N. Broad St., Suite 304, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Mark Salzer

Authors
  1. Karen L. Fortuna
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  2. Joelle Ferron
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  3. Sarah I. Pratt
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  4. Anjana Muralidharan
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  5. Kelly A. Aschbrenner
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  6. Ashley M. Williams
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  7. Patricia E. Deegan
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  8. Mark Salzer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen L. Fortuna.

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All authors declare that he/she has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.

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Fortuna, K.L., Ferron, J., Pratt, S.I. et al. Unmet Needs of People with Serious Mental Illness: Perspectives from Certified Peer Specialists. Psychiatr Q 90, 579–586 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-019-09647-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-019-09647-y

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