Does working with Molly help enhance supported employment services for adults with severe mental illness?
Funding
In 2016, Dr. Smith received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH110524) to deliver Molly to adults with severe mental illness living out in the community. As you can imagine, providing Molly to adults with severe mental illness within a structured research setting is going to be quite different from delivering Molly to these individuals within their typical everyday mental health services. Click here to download a pdf of the preliminary results. Click here to view the preliminary results.
Dr. Smith and his team are looking to learn whether helping individuals practice interviewing with Molly within their typical mental health services is going to:
1. provide the same opportunity to work with Molly (that is, will clients interview with Molly 10-15 times before going on a real-life interview?)
2. improve interview skills and access to jobs? (that is if clients don’t use Molly as often in their everyday services will they still benefit from working with her)
3. make sense economically (that is, how much will it cost to bring Molly to your service provider? and is it cheaper to provide interview skills training by working with Molly or your vocational counselor/specialist?)
To answer these questions, Dr. Smith and his research team are partnering with Thresholds Inc. in Chicago, Illinois. If you would like to learn more about how you can bring Molly to your clients, please click here.
Established in 1959, Thresholds provides healthcare, housing, and hope for thousands of persons with mental illnesses and substance use disorders in Illinois. Through care, employment, advocacy, and housing, Thresholds assists and inspires people with mental illnesses to reclaim their lives.
Thresholds offers 30 innovative programs at more than 100 locations throughout Chicago, the adjacent suburbs, and nine surrounding counties. Services include assertive outreach, case management, housing, employment, education, psychiatry, primary care, substance use treatment, and research. Last year, Thresholds served more than 16,000 adults and youth, with 75% of services delivered out in the community, representing more than 500,000 hours of care.
Click here to see demo videos with new virtual reality interview characters.