Social work agencies serving the mentally ill are seeing an increasing percentage of seriously mentally ill persons with multiple needs in non-clinical areas like housing, income, behavior, and employment. An accurate and thorough assessment of these needs is required if agencies are to effectively serve the mentally ill. Using innovative computer technology, called "expert systems," we collaborated with the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to build a computer system called ASAP which assists direct service staff in assessing non-clinical needs. Several MH agencies in would like to adapt ASAP to their settings. However, an expanded assessment model and a more flexible computer representation of the model is required to allow easy adaptation. The research will test the completeness and flexibility of an expanded assessment model and the adequacy of a representation technique for a new system called the Case Manager's Assistant (CMA) which could be adapted to any setting in which basic human needs are assessed. The research design reflects the state of the art for the validation of expert systems in practice. By including a quasi-experimental methodology (replicated single subject design), it can advance research m this area.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research: Upon sequential testing and refinement at multiple mental health sites, CMA could be marketed to 58 counties in and to hundreds of mental health centers nationwide. CMA could then be tested and adapted for use by staff serving the elderly, the developmentally disabled, and the financially disadvantaged. It might even be marketed to Employee Assistance Programs in private industry where social workers must assess the needs of employees and their families.National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
