Leopoldo J. Cabassa, Ph.D., M.S.W., and Ana Stefancic, Ph.D., join Dr. Dixon to discuss the effectiveness of the Peer-led Group Lifestyle Balance intervention, a 12-month manualized healthy lifestyle intervention delivered by peer specialists, in a sample of persons with serious mental illness who were overweight or obese and living in supportive housing.

Dr. Cabassa is an associate professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. He also is director of the NIMH T-32 Training Program and co-director of the Center for Mental Health Services Research at the university. His work aims to improve care for underserved communities, with a focus on disparities among racial-ethnic minorities with serious mental illness.

Dr. Stefancic is an associate research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Her research interests focus on evaluating housing and support services for individuals who have experienced homelessness, psychiatric disabilities, and other medical conditions.

• How the authors became interested in this field [2:08]
• Summary of study findings [6:20]
• Details of the supportive housing sites [10:05]
• Description of the peer-led program intervention [14:04]
• Work of the peer specialists within the program [16:35]
• Discussion of usual care [19:16]
• Details of the main outcomes [21:27]
• Differences between peer-led and usual care [22:31]
• Discussion of fidelity [27:02]
• Discussion of patient-level randomization [28:22]
• Remembering peer specialist Kelli Adams [33:41]
• One key takeaway from the work [36:44]

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