This article examines a special peersocial support program, which provides support to high-risk dually diagnosed chents. A pilot study of 10 randomly selected clients in the study group, and 51 in the comparison group, who had been in community care 1 year prior to this investigation was carried out. Service was provided for a 6-month period Findings suggest that coupling peer social support with intensive case management is associated with positive system outcomes. The number of crisis events of the comparison group far exceeded that of the study group. The number of hospitalizations was dramatically lower for the study group. Chents in the study group reported improved quality of life and perceived their physical and emotional well-being as improved over the course of the study. This pilot study indicates that peer support has a potential of improving system and clients' outcome; however, further replication is required.

Individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse diagnoses experience high rehospitalization rates. Consumer-delivered services are recognized as an important intervention for this population, but no studies have examined the extent to which such services are associated with enhanced community tenure and prevention of rehospitalizations. This longitudinal, comparison group study examines the effect of participation in The Friends Connection, a peer support program for individuals with co-occurring disorders, on 3-year rehospitalization patterns. Results from a survival analysis suggest that program participants have longer community tenure (i.e., periods of living in the community without rehospitalization) than a comparison group. Chi-square tests also indicate that significantly more people in the comparison group (73%) are rehospitalized in a 3-year period versus those in the Friends Connection group (62%). These results suggest that Friends Connection may facilitate community tenure and prevent rehospitalizations for a group that is at high-risk for rehospitalizations. The findings lend additional support of the potential effectiveness of peer support programs as part of a service delivery system that facilitates recovery of individuals with co-occurring disorders.

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