Pa. Frankie et al., SUPPORTED EDUCATION FOR PERSONS WITH PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITIES - IMPLEMENTATION IN AN URBAN SETTING, Journal of mental health administration, 23(4), 1996, pp. 406-417
The onset of mental illness may drastically interrupt individual lives
, often occurring during young adulthood when people are pursuing acad
emic or vocational goals. Many individuals with psychiatric disabiliti
es would like to resume these pursuits but need support to be successf
ul. Responding to this need, the Michigan Supported Education Research
Project (MSERP) was developed as a three-year federally funded collab
orative effort providing support, assistance, and information to indiv
iduals with serious mental illness who wish to pursue college or vocat
ional education. This article describes implementation of the project
in metropolitan Detroit, the issues encountered, and solutions develop
ed along the way. Significant factors in implementation include an urb
an-based location on a college campus, the collaboration between the p
ublic mental health system and academic institutions, and the many cha
llenges presented by the students and the educational and mental healt
h systems in place to serve them.