Critical Time Intervention – Task Shifting (CTI-TS): a psychosocial intervention for people with severe mental illness in Latin America

Tatiana Fernandes Carpinteiro Da Silva¹*, Giovanni Lovisi¹, Sara Conover² and Ezra Susser²

¹Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) - Public Health Institute (IESC), Rio de Janeiro – Brazil.

²Columbia University – Newman School of Public Health - New York-USA.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: tatiana_fcs@hotmail.com; Telephone: 55 (21) 9618-7097

Accepted 12 March, 2014

Abstract

The Critical Time Intervention-Task Shifting (CTI-TS) is a psychosocial intervention designed to address a fundamental gap in the services offered by mental health services in Latin America to the treatment of individuals with severe mental illness (SMI). This article aims to describe the principles of this innovative psychosocial intervention, as well report the stages of its implementation process carried out up to the moment. CTI-TS was developed based on a north- American intervention, and had the support of mental health specialist from three Latin countries (Brazil, Chile and Argentina) beyond the creators of the original intervention (NY-USA), to assure that cultural, politics and economic issues from Latin-American reality were considered is its development. This will be the first psychosocial intervention designed and performed simultaneously in three countries of Latin America. Results regarding feasibility and clinical outcomes will be available soon.

Keywords: Psychosocial intervention, Interventional study, Severe Mental Illness, Mental Health, Latin America.