Measuring What Matters: Patient-Centered Goals for Serious Mental Illness Care
Official title: Measuring What Matters-Patient Centered Outcome Measures of Goal-Directed Care for People with Serious Mental Illness
Funded at Rand Corporation · NIH-11361082 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A patient-centered set of measures to track how well mental health services help people with serious mental illness reach their personal goals.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Rand Corporation NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Santa Monica, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2024 |
| Project end | June 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $606,815 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MH137074-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11361082 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults with serious mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, receiving community-based mental health services.
✕Less likely to help
Patients not engaged in goal-directed care or not in community-based treatment settings may not experience direct benefits.
What this research studies
This initiative aims to create goal-focused, patient-centered outcome measures to gauge the quality of goal-directed care for adults with serious mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The research team will blend personalized goal attainment with standardized scoring to capture meaningful progress in community-based treatment settings. Data will come from real-world clinics in Texas and Arizona, using both quantitative metrics and patient experiences to shape the measures. The work builds on existing methods used in other populations and applies them to mental health services to better reflect what matters to patients. If successful, these measures could inform care quality assessments and accreditation processes.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could experience care that aligns more closely with their goals and values, improving quality of life and satisfaction with treatment.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work on goal attainment scaling has shown promise in other populations and is being adapted for mental health care.
Where this research is happening
-
Rand Corporation
Santa Monica, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Breslau, Joshua a — Rand Corporation
- Study coordinator: Breslau, Joshua a
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.