As part of its work as a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, under grants from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the Temple University Collaborative undertakes a wide-ranging series of training and dissemination initiatives designed to provide policy makers and agency executives, practitioners and consumers, community members and others with the findings from emerging community inclusion research, through training and consultation services.
These programs are part of a broad commitment to “knowledge translation” – that is, to translating the knowledge that emerges from current research in the field into practical policies, programs, and policies that support local programs as they transform their services and supports to ones that better promote full community participation for individuals with mental illnesses.
You can explore our commonly provided trainings by clicking on the titles below.
Community Inclusion as a Medical Necessity (1 hour):
This session will briefly describe what community inclusion is and why it is important, including an emphasis on social determinants of health (physical, cognitive, and mental health and wellness). Attendees are encouraged to read this free article prior to participating in the session: https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.202000394
Fundamentals of Community Inclusion (2 hours):
This session will provide attendees with knowledge about the fundamental beliefs and practices that are required for making community inclusion a reality for people with serious mental illnesses. This session will be based on information available in this free document:
Introduction to Assessing Community Participation (1.5 hours):
This session will introduce attendees to a tool, the “Temple University Community Participation Measure” (TUCPM), which is a free tool that can be used to assess the extent to which people are participating in various areas and understand what is important to them and whether they are doing it “enough,” “not enough,” or “too much.” Attendees will gain experience completing the measure themselves and learn about its development and how it has been used to learn about the lives of people with serious mental illnesses and, more recently, autistic adults. The session is intended for those who will be working directly with individuals on their community participation.
Developing a Community Inclusion Supports Plan (3 hours):
This highly interactive session involving many large and small group conversations will offer attendees who are leading efforts to promote community inclusion a framework for developing a Community Inclusion Supports Plan (CISP). The CISP identifies consumer goals, strengths and resources, needs and barriers related to their inclusion and participation, and steps for addressing needs and barriers. Participants will develop personal experience with the CISP process by creating plans for enhancing their own participation in desired areas. The CISP process is partly articulated in this document: https://tucollaborative.org/peer-support/peer-facilitated-community-inclusion-toolkit/
Addressing Social Isolation and Loneliness (1 hour):
In this session you will learn about the factors that influence social isolation and loneliness and be introduced to the concept of “mattering” as a strategy for addressing these issues.
Managing Risk Associated with Community Participation (1.5 hours):
One reason providers are hesitant to promote community inclusion is that they fear getting in trouble if program participants experience challenges. This session will offer an oversee of a process for addressing potential risks when promoting community inclusion and participation and a strategy for addressing those risks.
Jump Starting Community Inclusion (1.5 hours):
This training is intended to provide ideas that mental health agencies can pursue to promote community inclusion. It includes ideas for educate staff and community members, funding strategies, new programmatic initiatives, and other innovations they might take up to make community inclusion a reality. The training is based on the following document:
Independence Through Community Access & Navigation (ICAN): A Supported Leisure Intervention (2 hours):
Leisure is an important area of community participation that facilities physical, cognitive, and mental health and wellness. This training offers an introduction to an intervention aimed at supporting increased leisure and recreation among individuals in recovery. The training will focus on: 1) overview and benefits of community-based recreation participation; 2) factors to consider when supporting community-based recreation; 3) implementation strategies; and 4) case examples.
Beyond The Diagnosis: Community Inclusion Story Telling (1 hour):
This is an introductory training that offers suggestions and strategies for organizing storytelling events and activities to help people in recovery develop stories based on their community inclusion experiences. The stories assist consumers in their efforts to identify and describe the people, places, and things that are meaningful to them in their communities. The training is based on the following document:
https://tucollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/Beyond-The-Diagnosis-Story-Telling-Project.pdf
Supporting Community Inclusion of Young Adults: Supported decision-making and Connections Rx (1.5 hours):
Young people with mental illnesses have unique community participation interests and do not participate in their communities as much as they would like. Focusing on their participation is thought to likely increase their engagement in services. This session focuses on two approaches that could be utilized to enhance their participation. One focuses on helping them make decisions about what they would like to pursue and the other focuses on connecting them to community participation resources.
PODS: A Mutual Aid Approach to Community Participation (1.5 hours):
This training is on a group-based approach to promoting community participation. It involves both large group sessions in which people explore and discuss their participation interests followed by small groups consisting of individuals with similar interests where they are supported in developing plans to engage in those activities by supporting one another.
Promoting the development and use of natural supports to enhance community participation (1.5 hours):
Some people do not engage in activities in the community because they do not have people to go with or do not ask people they do know whether they would like to go with them. Mental health providers recognize this and often organize community outings (e.g., group trips to movies, bowling, picnics) or go with the person themselves. While this can be enjoyable, these events are infrequent and do not assist people in learning how to enhance their social networks and identify people who can go with them outside of their mental health services. This training will focus on how to support people in developing natural support systems (i.e., people who are not paid to help out, like friends and family members) and engaging in activities with them in the community.
Promoting Long-Term Employment and Careers through Educational Supports: The Power of P’U (1.5 hours):
Supported employment remains THE best practice in promoting employment outcomes for people with significant mental health issues. However, the outcomes are not nearly as good as we would like them to be. In this session attendees will review data on the important role that education plays in employment, challenges that individuals with significant mental health issues experience in post-secondary education, and discuss the types of initiatives that can be undertaken to promote educational success.