providing the counselors with important information

Participants were 170 adult clients selected from a 12-county community mental health agency in a southeastern state. To help ensure generalizability of results, tiffany rings participants were included regardless of income, severity of symptoms, physical disabilities, prior treatment history, or type of housing situation (i.e., homeless, supported housing, or independent living environments). The only delimitations were a confirmed psychotic disorder diagnosis and being 18 years old or older. These delimitations were imposed because psychotic disorders were the target population for this study and because clients under 18 years of age with a psychosis may have different psychosocial symptoms that are more transient and difficult to evaluate than those symptoms manifested in adults (APA, 1997).

After obtaining written informed consent, a convenience sample of all clients diagnosed with psychotic disorders at three mental health settings during a continuous 4-month period was obtained. All clients with psychosis initially presenting for treatment at an inpatient or outpatient program and all clients with psychosis currently in a long-term residential program were included as participants. First, to ensure accurate clinical diagnoses, participants were interviewed according to the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I DSM-IV Disorders (SCID-I; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1995). tiffany engagement rings The SCID-I is a semistructured interview approach specifically designed to guide counselors in accurately assessing, evaluating, and diagnosing Axis I DSM mental disorders. Interviews were conducted by licensed master's- and doctorallevel clinicians trained in the assessment of mental disorders. All initial diagnoses were then confirmed by a board-certified psychiatrist. Only clients with confirmed psychotic disorder diagnoses were included in the sample population.

Then, the interviewers completed a comprehensive psychosocial evaluation, including the collection of demographic information, a medical history, a treatment history, and a social history. These data were specifically outlined on a standard intake assessment form, providing the counselors with important information for rating the variables tested in this study. Next, participants' current psychosocial symptoms were evaluated using the Structured Clinical Interview for the Functional Assessment Rating Scale (SCI-FARS; Ward et al., 1995). The SCI-FARS is a semistructured interview used to gain detailed information about the severity of 17 psychosocial impairments (including psychotic, manic, depressive, cognitive, and anxiety symptoms). Finally, interviewers assessed participants' current insight into illness by evaluating their awareness of having a mental disorder, of the consequences of the disorder, and of the need for treatment. Total interview duration with each participant averaged tiffany pendants approximately 90 minutes. Immediately following each interview, clinicians completed ratings on the Functional Assessment Rating Scale (PARS; Ward & Dow, 1994) and the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD; Amador, Strauss, Yale, & German, 1991). All counselors were blind to the protocol of the study, and the research design was approved by the Institutional Review Board of a large state-supported university prior to collection of data.