Benefits Management for People With Psychiatric Disabilities

Inclusion Criteria:

- Has received treatment for a psychiatric disorder within 60 days of enrollment

- Receives SSI or SSDI payments totaling at least $600 per month

- Has an identified outpatient clinician

- Either i) Homeless within the past 3 months. Homeless is defined as having spent at
least seven days in a shelter, outdoors (e.g. in a park, in a car), in a public or
abandoned building (e.g. train station), or temporarily (less than a continuous
month) housed by family or friends OR ii) Hospitalized within the past 3 months

Justification for Inclusion Criteria: Homelessness and hospitalization are common reasons
for payee assignment (Conrad, Matters et al. 1998). In a prior study, we found that a
high proportion of hospitalized inpatients meet criteria for needing a payee (Rosen,
Rosenheck et al. 2002a). There is no point enrolling clinically stable outpatients in this
study because they are unlikely to need payees.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Already has a conservator or representative payee

- An application to assign a payee or conservator has been initiated

- Unable to speak and understand English