Using data from a CSP-funded research demonstration project designed to expand vocational services offered by case management teams serving people with serious mental illness, this paper examines the issues created by employing consumers as peer support specialists for the project. Roles and benefits of these positions are analyzed. Challenges experienced by specialists created by serving peers, the structure of the position, the mental health system and the community, and personal issues are analyzed using data from focus groups and the project's management information system. Implications for consumer role definition, supports for role effectiveness, and the structuring of these types of positions are discussed.

Homeless women with children have been one of the fastest growing homeless subpopulations during the past decade. However, research in this area has paid scant attention to the needs of these homeless families. The ethnographic study of homeless women with children described in this article captures the prevailing strengths of this population. The women's strengths were identified in seeking housing, caring for children, and remaining connected to social contacts to keep their families together. The authors suggest that ethnography provides guideposts for social workers as they search for practice models.

The authors discuss the culture-specific problems faced by West Indian immigrants who received treatment at the East Brooklyn Prevention Program. The characteristics, patterns, and functioning of this population must be identified before effective treatment can occur.

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