Improving Outcomes for Individuals With Serious Mental Illness and Diabetes

This project will test a novel intervention, Targeted Training in Illness Management (TTIM), intended to improve both serious mental illness (SMI) and diabetes mellitus (DM) self-management in 100 individuals with SMI-DM vs. 100 individuals with SMI-DM receiving treatment as usual (TAU). The intervention will be conducted in a safety-net health system primary care setting and will be conducted as a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The primary effects of TTIM will be assessed with respect to SMI symptoms, Functional Status/Role Impairment, General Health Status, and DM outcomes. Secondary outcomes include adherence to psychotropic and DM medication, and engagement in healthy behaviors. This assessment will include quantitative assessment of facilitators/barriers targeted by the proposed intervention as well as a supplemental qualitative assessment. The qualitative assessments will include input from patients and interventionists. Specific aims for the qualitative analysis are to validate findings from the RCT, expand understanding of "key active ingredients" of TTIM, and provide information to inform future studies on individuals with SMI and related medical conditions.