Invisible Children's Project: Outcomes
The Invisible Children's Project has a significantly positive effect on the lives of parents with a diagnosis of a mental illness and their children.
In an evaluation of the Invisible Children's Project conducted by Dr. Dan Herman of the New York Psychiatric Institute, over 90% of families rated the overall quality of service as good or excellent and would recommend it to a friend.
The data further demonstrated that the Project is particularly effective in helping parents with mental illness:
- obtain better housing
- develop a support network
- parent more effectively
- feel more in control of life
- try new things
Recent internal studies revealed a notable:
- increase in the ability of parents to maintain jobs
- increase in the ability of parents to get off public assistance
- increase in the ability of families to find stable housing
- decrease in hospitalization for parents
- decrease in the number of children placed in out-of-home placements such as foster care
The Invisible Children's Project was one of five sites selected nationally to participate in a file extraction research study by the University of Illinois - Chicago. The Project is also currently participating in case study research by Joanne Nicholson, Ph.D. and Betsy Hinden, Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Center for Mental Health Services Research.
In sum, the Invisible Children's Project has resulted in vast savings, including economic ones for the community, in emotional value for the lives of family members, and in human potential.
An analysis of the stakeholder coalition efforts in five communities to begin addressing the needs of families in which a parent has a mental illness through collaborative planning processes will help inform subsequent efforts to plan for and replicate the Invisible Children's Project model.
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