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University of Maryland 

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins-University of Maryland Center for Research on Services for Severe Mental Illness (SMI Center) was established in 1987 as a collaborative effort of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University and the Center for Mental Health Services Research of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland. It works collaboratively with the Maryland State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), as well as providers and payers. The Center has adopted an integrating theme, "Improving Quality of Care and Patient Outcomes," which involves the Center in 

• further developing and refining methods to improve the match between patient needs and services,
• developing guidelines for the financing and organization of care that meet cost and effectiveness criteria taking into account variations in need and available resources, and 
• testing dissemination strategies to close the gap between research and practice.

The specific research aims of the Center are directed at four policy-relevant areas:

• Developing and evaluating evidence-based quality of care criteria for services to persons with SMI and, where evidence is insufficient, evaluating the impacts of service alternatives on patient outcomes, service utilization, and costs;  
• Examining the role of financing mechanisms as a means to encourage efficiency, assure access to appropriate care for persons with SMI, and provide incentives for enhancing patient outcomes;
• Examining alternative organizational and system approaches for managing resources and coordinating services to persons with SMI, and evaluating their impact on quality of care, utilization, patient outcomes, and cost; and
• Assessing the gaps between current practices and evidence-based quality of care criteria and evaluating the cost and effectiveness of promising dissemination interventions to improve quality of care and patient outcomes. 

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded the Center four grants for core support, the first for the period 1987-1992, the second for 1992-1995, the third for 1995-2000, and the fourth for 2000-2005.  These funds are used in part for developmental and pilot studies that are expected to lead to major research and demonstration initiatives for which new sources of funding are sought. The core support from NIMH makes it possible to develop a program of research involving multi-disciplinary faculty, to recruit new faculty, and to undertake pilot studies and developmental work leading to major new research initiatives.