Pathways in Living

Research Study Funded!

            For mental health consumers, community integration means having a full, independent life within their communities where they make their own decisions about work, housing, relationships, and other life goals.  Consumers who have taken NAMI of Greater Chicago’s Pathways in Living (PIL) peer-led education course have told us how PIL has helped them identify their strengths, and set and achieve goals.  Now, a new three-year study funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) will help us demonstrate just how effective PIL is in improving consumers’ community integration.  This research project, “Pathways in Living: Increasing Mental Health Consumers’ Community Integration Through Peer-Led Education” is led by Dr. Sue Pickett-Schenk (UIC Department of Psychiatry) and Suzanne Andriukaitis (NAMI of Greater Chicago), and will be conducted at three Chicago agencies:  Thresholds’ Dincin Recovery Center, Heartland Health Outreach, and the Community Mental Health Council.  A total of 336 consumers (112 from each agency) will participate in the project and will either receive PIL right away, or nine months later.  We will interview all participants at three time points to understand how PIL increases their community integration. This NIDRR-funded study gives us a unique opportunity to provide PIL to consumers throughout Chicago, and to show how peer-led programs like PIL help consumers achieve their self-determined life goals. 

For more information on PIL, please contact the NAMI of Greater Chicago office.