Self-perceived functional ability may not be an influence on housing preferences, except when that ability is perceived as making independent living more difficult. Symptoms of mental illness did not appear to interfere with study participants' rational decision making about where to live. However, the study finding that substance abusers expressed a desire for independent living suggests the need for caution in adhering to homeless mentally ill persons' housing preferences, given the problems posed by substance abuse for their ability to maintain stable community housing.

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Public-Academic Liaison research centers (PALs) have traditionally provided benefits to both state mental health authorities (SMHAs) and academic institutions. The advent of managed care, austere state fiscal budgets, and a restructured national research development capacity suggests the need for new administrative approaches to PAL research efforts to maintain these benefits in this era of rapidly changing health care. This brief report outlines one such approach by the Massachusetts SMHA in its efforts to establish two PAL research centers: one for clinical neuroscience, and one for behavioral and forensic science. Preliminary two-year outcomes are presented, and the implications of the model are discussed.