NIDILRR Program Database Detailed Record.

Project Type/Research Category: Fellowships (Merit).

Funding Priority: Capacity Building for Rehabilitation Research and Training.
For more information on NIDILRR's funding priorities, read about NIDILRR's Core Areas of Research in the Long Range Plan at https://acl.gov/sites/default/files/about-acl/2019-01/NIDILRR%20LRP-2018-2023-Final.pdf.

Training Young Adults with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities and Co-Occurring Mental Health Conditions to Deliver a Peer Mentoring Intervention.

This project has completed its research activities and is now closed.  Check REHABDATA for documents.

Ariel E. Schwartz, PhD.
MGH Institute of Health Professionals
Department of Occupational Therapy.
36 First Avenue.
Boston, MA 02129-4557.

E-mail: aschwartz1@mghihp.edu.
Principal Investigator: Ariel E. Schwartz, PhD.
Project Number: 90SFGE0031. About grant numbers.
Start Date: September 15, 2021.
Length: 12 months.
NIDILRR Officer: Dawn Carlson, PhD, MPH.
NIDILRR Funding: FY 21 $70,000.
Abstract: This study builds upon a peer mentoring intervention that addresses identification and utilization of coping strategies to reduce challenging mental health symptoms for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions (IDD-MH). Recent estimates suggest that youth and young adults with IDD may be diagnosed with mental health conditions 4-5 times more often than peers without disabilities. Mental health challenges are particularly important to address during transition to adulthood, as the novel demands of independent living and post-secondary education contribute to additional mental health challenges. A promising peer mentoring intervention, where a young adult with IDD-MH serves as a peer mentor, proved feasible but some content and skills were difficult for mentors to deliver. This project expands, refines, and adapts the previously developed peer mentoring training protocol and evaluates its preliminary efficacy for supporting delivery of high-fidelity peer mentoring. Researchers will collaborate with an advisory board composed of experts in peer-delivered mental health services to refine the existing training protocol, develop additional training activities, and adapt the protocol for virtual delivery. Next, researchers will evaluate the preliminary efficacy of the training protocol on peer mentors’ ability to meet fidelity criteria. After receiving training, mentors deliver the 16-week peer mentoring intervention to 12-16 participants, after which researchers will evaluate fidelity to content and quality criteria. Concurrently, researchers will collect data about potential efficacy of the peer mentoring intervention on participants by gathering self-reported data about participants’ self-efficacy for managing emotions, mental health symptoms, and mood. The development of an effective peer mentoring training protocol is critical to move forward not only this peer mentoring intervention, but could serve as the foundation for other peer-delivered interventions for young adults with IDD.
Descriptors: Developmental disabilities, Intellectual Disabilities, Mental health, Peer Specialists.

Documents in REHABDATA: There are no documents related to this project.