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Dr. Christopher Larrison

How the Use of Apps Helps People with Mental Illness Forge Relationships and Develop Social Networks

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“We often are underestimating our clients’ ability to use technology and their access to technology.”

Dr. Christopher Larrison

In this episode, our guest Dr. Christopher Larrison describes his work utilizing smartphone technology to help people with mental illness connect, build relationships, and develop supportive networks. He discusses what he is learning about how smartphones can be used as a conduit to reduce clients’ isolation and increase their access to useful information about themselves and their condition.

Christopher R. Larrison, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of Illinois School of Social Work. He earned his MSW and PhD at the University of Georgia. Dr. Larrison is interested in community based service agencies and how they interact with clients and policies to create outcomes for clients. Employing primary data, he has studied community based mental health services in the U.S., community development in rural Mexico, and the impact of welfare reform in Georgia. His use of field research techniques has led to extensive experience in training and supervising research staff, collecting and analyzing primary data, and using mixed methods. He has concentrated on two sets of factors related to community based service outcomes: 1) client-level factors, with a particular consideration of socioeconomic status; gender; level of health; and race, culture, and ethnicity and 2) agency-level factors, with a particular consideration of program model, level of innovation, and organizational climate.

Interviewer: Robert Keefe, PhD

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