State Hospital Evidence-based Practice Consultation

The State Hospital Evidence-based Practice Consultation Initiative is a project of the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and the Counseling Professions at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Health Professions and is funded by the New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services (NJDMHS).  It’s mission is to improve consumer outcomes in New Jersey’s five state hospitals by enhancing hospital staff workforce competencies and implementing evidence-based practices like Illness Management and Recovery into the hospital’s service delivery system.

Utilizing a consultation model that stresses psychiatric rehabilitation principles, wellness and recovery oriented practice and an embedded methodology that insures that changes in service delivery are sustained, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey faculty collaborate with clinicians and administrators in each of the hospitals in order to provide practices that foster consumer empowerment and resourcefulness as they undertake their journey toward recovery.

The goals of the project are:

• Improve the basic wellness and recovery oriented competencies of hospital staff
• Introduce Illness Management and Recovery and other evidenced practices into the hospital’s menu of services
• Assist the hospitals in adopting policies and procedures that reflect psychiatric rehabilitation principles and consumer choice

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey faculty continue to work with NJDMHS and the state hospitals to bring about change and a newfound sense of hope to in-patient service delivery in the state hospital. This is accomplished by implementing evidence-based practices, teaching undergraduate psychiatric rehabilitation coursework, providing training and mentoring to hospital staff and collaborating with the state hospitals around the implementation of innovative services like rehabilitation focused treatment malls and Dialectic Behavioral Therapy programs, which provide consumers with the opportunity to gain the skills necessary for a successful return to the community.

Faculty

Program Director
Joseph C. Birkmann, LSW, MPA

Faculty
Ancora Psychiatric Hospital
– Ken Kinter, MA, MINT
– Dawn Reinhardt-Wood, MA, CPRP
Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital
– Jennifer Sperduto, MS
Trenton Psychiatric Hospital
– Tom Bartholomew, MA