Voices from the Margins: In Pursuit of Recovery in the New York City Homeless Services System
This presentation will draw upon data from the New York Services Study (NYSS), a four-year all-qualitative R01 grant funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and conducted at the NYU School of Social Work. Overall goals of the NYSS are to examine service use and other factors affecting recovery among homeless persons with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders served by 'housing first' vs. 'treatment first' programs in New York. Findings on the 'dual tracks' of recovery in mental illness and from substance abuse are based upon grounded theory analyses of retrospective life history data as well as prospective interviews with clients at four NYC agencies.
Deborah K. Padgett, PhD, a professor at New York University School of Social Work, received her doctorate in cultural anthropology and completed post-doctoral training in public health at Columbia University and in psychiatric epidemiology at Duke University. She is the author/editor of two textbooks in qualitative methods--Qualitative Methods in Social Work Research (1998) and The Qualitative Research Experience (2004)-and has published extensively on the mental health needs and service use of underserved ethnic groups, women and the homeless. She is currently Principal Investigator of a four-year all-qualitative R01 grant from NIMH to study recovery and the service delivery system for homeless adults with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders in New York City. Dr. Padgett served as President of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) and has presented at a number of conferences, served on numerous editorial boards and mentored social work researchers around the U.S. She received an unprecedented honor from SSWR in 2006 with the naming of the "Deborah K. Padgett Early Career Fellowship" in recognition of her contributions.
