A Developmental Study of Community Participation of Individuals With Serious Mental Illnesses: Implications for Policy and Practice

Understanding age-related expectations for community participation can aid mental health providers and policy makers in the design and tailoring of age-appropriate services to better meet consumers' participation needs. This study seeks to describe and compare the amount, importance, and sufficiency of community participation in younger adult, middle-aged adult, and older adult consumers. Participants were 879 adults with serious mental illnesses who completed the Temple University Community Participation Measure as part of several studies (only baseline data were analyzed). One-way analysis of variance tests and chi-square analyses were used to evaluate the effect of age group on community participation outcomes. The amount and importance of participation in specific participation areas differed across age groups in developmentally appropriate ways. For older adults, a greater percentage of areas considered important were done enough, and fewer participation days were needed in certain areas for participation to be considered sufficient. Consumers reported participating in the community to meet basic needs (e.g., running errands), but participation appeared lower in areas typically identified as important to various age groups across the life span (e.g., working). Results support the use of developmental frameworks for delivering mental health services and identify particular areas of community participation that policy and practice efforts might focus on to help individuals participate to a greater degree in areas that are important to them. Implications for policy making, program evaluation, and individual interventions are discussed.