Integrated Care & Patient Navigators for Latinos With Serious Mental Illness

The health care needs of people with serious mental illness are exacerbated by ethnic health disparities. Latinos with serious mental illness show significant health problems compared to other ethnic groups. Therefore, this project is to develop a meaningful peer-navigator program for Latinos with serious mental illness using community-based participatory research (CBPR). Investigators are currently working with seven Hispanic/Latinos with a mental illness that have formed a Consumer Research Team (CRT) that will guide this project. This project will identify and define the problem by conducting a mixed methods research thru qualitative interviews with various stakeholders defined by the investigator's CRT group. The qualitative findings will then be cross-validated in a quantitative survey by 100 Hispanic/Latinos with mental illness. This information will then be used to design an intervention using an integrated care model for Peer-Navigators. Feasibility, accessibility , acceptability and impact of the peer-navigator program will be then evaluated in a randomized control trial (RCT) with 100 Latinos with serious mental illness who will complete measures of physical health, mental health, service use and engagement at baseline, 4, 8, and 12 months. Investigators expect to show physical health improvement with the greater engagement observed in the peer navigator group. Investigators expect a similar improvement in mental health and quality of life as physical health concerns are diminished.