Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research
CHEER
Current Events
The third edition of Principles and Principles and Practices of Psychiatric Rehabilitation: Promoting Recovery and Self-Determination (Guilford Press) has just been released. In addition to the evidence-based focus on strategies that promote recovery in earlier versions, the third expands on key themes including understanding life goals in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion; recognizing barriers wrought by social disadvantage such as poverty and criminal justice involvement; broadening focus to include physical health and wellness; grounding innovations with community-based participatory research; and expanding the workforce through peer recovery support providers.
The Center for Health Equity, Education, and Research (CHEER) is dedicated to addressing health challenges that are worsened by disparities. We do this through multiple research and training programs located in the Department of Psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology and funded by various government and private funders. Our focus is on solutions, especially at the level of an active community. Although our roots are with challenges wrought by mental illness, we have broadened to health and health disparities in general over the past decade. CHEER comprises five programs with their own portfolio of projects.
CHDC examines ways in which social determinants and corresponding disadvantages impact health and health care systems. Two especially prominent areas are community-based participatory research (our Inspiring Change program) and peer health navigators.
NCSE is a collection of more than a dozen academic institutions and advocacy groups seeking to understand and diminish the harmful effects of stigma. While our original focus was first on mental health, research has expanded to other conditions including substance use disorder and HIV-AIDS.
HOP is a strategic disclosure program where people address their self-stigma by deciding if and how to tell their story of mental illness and recovery. The program has been adapted to multiple cultures (China, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Chile), populations (suicide attempt survivors, veterans, soldiers, college students, mental health professionals), and health conditions outside of mental illness(urinary incontinence, dementia, Tourette syndrome).
Published by the American Psychological Association, SaH is the flagship journal of research on stigma and stigma change.
Peer recovery support providers is an innovative approach to state-of-the-art recovery-based services for people with serious mental illness. The CRSS is an education program at CHEER to train people for this profession as a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS).
Many of the products of these programs can be downloaded for free from their respective websites. Click on the titles to see more.