Participants with a Total-AHI ≥ 1.5 had higher glucose levels. Sleepiness and/or poor sleep habits correlated with reduced quality of life, depressed mood, lower grades, and lower state standardized reading scores. Diabetic youth spent more time (%) in stage N2 and less time in stage N3. Findings related to sleep architecture included associations between reduced SWS and higher HbA1C, worse quality of life, and sleepiness. More time (%) spent in stage N2 related to higher glucose levels/hyperglycemia, behavioral difficulties, reduced quality of life, lower grades, depression, sleep-wake behavior problems, poor sleep quality, sleepiness, and lower state standardized math scores.

This article shares the professional and personal experiences of a research team in conducting research through a community mental health center's research and evaluation department over a 5-year period. The team is unique in that it consists of center staff, university professors, and graduate students collaborating to do research through the center. In addition to meeting the various research and evaluation requirements of the center, the team successfully conducted research projects resulting in a continuing series of publications, convention presentations, and several dissertations and theses. The problems and rewards of this endeavor are offered from the perspective of the various research team members.This article shares the professional and personal experiences of a research team in conducting research through a community mental health center's (CMHC) research and evaluation department over a 5-year period. The somewhat unique team consisted of center staff, university professors, and graduate students who collaborated on the research projects. In addition to meeting the various research and evaluation requirements of the center, the team successfully conducted research projects in a number of interest areas (e.g., client's and therapist's treatment expectations, consumer satisfaction with mental health services, relationship of type of payment to course and outcome of treatment, community and gatekeeper awareness of mental health services, etc.) that resulted in a continuing series of published articles, convention presentations, and several dissertations and theses. The problems and rewards of this endeavor are shared from the perspective of the various research team members.In the first section, the director of the center's research and evaluation (R&E) department addresses the complexities of developing a research department in an action setting. The demands from inside and outside the agency are discussed, as are potential solutions to these pressures. The university-affiliated member then discusses his experiences in attempting to fulfill academic research requirements in combination with applied research interests and center needs and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of this endeavor. Next, a former research extern at the center, who ultimately conducted his doctoral research through the center's research and evaluation department, details the promises and pitfalls of this project from the doctoral student perspective. A staff member, later director of the R&E department, and a university student doing her thesis research conclude the article with their discussion of innovative ways of conducting large-scale community-based research with limited resources. The recruitment, training, and utilization of undergraduates to conduct community research are discussed.

One accessible measure of the impact a community mental health center has on the community it serves is the awareness levels of both residents and gatekeeper groups regarding the center's existence and services. This broad‐based study was conducted with university students at no cost to the center and included 436 residents and 175 gatekeepers. The results indicated that awareness levels for community residents and gatekeeper groups were 34% and 53%, respectively, but varied dramatically as a function of how the awareness questions were phrased. The overall awareness findings generally supported those of other studies and were discussed in light of potential normative levels, methods for conducting surveys of this nature, response rates, and the increasing need to justify existence given the diminishing funding situation.

Community residents (n = 403) in the East Catchment area of Tucson, Arizona, were interviewed to assess attitudes toward community mental health center (CMHC) services and patients as well as mental hospital services and patients. These residents reported significantly more positive attitudes toward CMHC services than mental hospital services; however, there were no differences in reported attitudes towards CMHC and mental hospital patients. Results are discussed in terms of shifts in community residents' attitudes towards mental health services in general and community-based services in particular. Implications of community attitudes for support of CMHC programs in a time of increasing financial cutbacks are also explored.

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