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This paper aims to describe the Recovering Citizenship Learning Collaborative (RCLC), a training, consultation and implementation effort for 13 local mental health authorities and two state hospitals.

The learning collaborative used a Recovering Citizenship approach, which holds that recovery occurs in the context of people’s lives in their communities and society, that is, their citizenship. The RCLC was implemented by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) in the USA and the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health along with lived experience leaders. The RCLC supported system change through training DMHAS staff on concepts of recovery and citizenship and developing agency action plans, with the long-term goal of improving citizenship-oriented care at the agency-level and recovery and citizenship-related outcomes for people receiving services.

Lessons learned include the importance of assessing organizational readiness for change, addressing leadership investment and attention to systemic barrier, and offering tools to promote structure and accountability. Next steps are supporting agency action plans through technical assistance, state-wide educational offerings and a resource library.

Systemic barriers are considerable and must be addressed before system transformation is possible.

The authors are hopeful that the RCLC has been part of overcoming those challenges and can be a tool for building foundations for improving citizen practices and people’s citizenship-related outcomes.

Next steps are sustaining agency action plans, ongoing agency-specific technical assistance, ongoing state-wide educational offerings and a resource library.

The RCLC has provided tools and supports to build the foundation for improved citizenship practices and client outcomes at the multiagency system level.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical account of the significant role that Connecticut businesses and business leaders had in the spread of Lean management throughout the USA. The paper aims to describe what happens when managers do not understand and apply an important principle of Lean management.

Survey of published and unpublished records, as well as personal communications with key figures.

Establishes the role and importance of Connecticut businesses and business leaders in the discovery and dissemination of Lean management in America since 1979, external to Toyota and its affiliated suppliers.

The accuracy of some past events necessarily relies on the recollection of key figures that were obtained by personal communications.

Describes how an important principle, “respect for people,” was not understood by most management practitioners, thus hindering efforts to correctly practice Lean management and improve business performance.

The paper provides a historical account of Lean management in America, focusing on activities that occurred in the State of Connecticut post‐1979. Description and relevance of a key area of misunderstanding among practitioners of the Lean management system.

Public Act 95‐234, An Act Establishing a Commu‐nications Grant Program for Schools and Libraries and the Connecticut Library Network was passed by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1995. This act directs the Connecticut State Library to plan and develop the Connecticut Library Network (CLN). The act specifies that the CLN shall 1) be an expansion of the State Library's existing statewide database, 2) have the potential to link all school, public, and academic libraries and municipal government offices, and 3) for the purpose of making the State Library's information resources accessible through the state via the network, incorporate the linkage of the State Library to the library automation system of the Connecticut State University.

Older incarcerated persons are an especially vulnerable segment of the prison population, with high rates of multimorbidity. This study aims to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older incarcerated persons’ mental and physical health.

Participants were 157 currently-incarcerated persons age ≥50 years who were enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study before the pandemic. Anxiety symptoms (seven-item generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire), depressive symptoms (eight-item patient health questionnaire) and self-rated health (SRH) were assessed during in-person interviews completed before the pandemic and via mailed surveys during the pandemic (August–September 2020). A mediation model evaluated the relationship among anxiety, depression and SRH.

Participants were 96% male, racially diverse (41% White, 41% Black, 18% Hispanic/Other), with average age 56.0(±5.8) years. From before to during the pandemic, anxiety symptoms increased (worsened) (from 6.4 ± 5.7 to 7.8 ± 6.6; p < 0.001), depressive symptoms increased (worsened) (from 5.5 ± 6.0 to 8.1 ± 6.5; p < 0.001) and SRH decreased (worsened) (from 3.0 ± 0.2 to 2.6 ± 0.2; p < 0.001). The total effect of worsening anxiety symptoms on worsening SRH (−0.043; p < 0.001) occurs entirely because of worsening depressive symptoms, i.e. the direct effect was statistically non-significant −0.030 (p = 0.068).

Older incarcerated persons experienced worsening mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic which was associated with worsening SRH. These findings have implications for health-care costs and services needed to care for this vulnerable group.

This is the first study to evaluate change in older incarcerated persons’ mental health from before the COVID-19 pandemic to during the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of public digital services on urban/suburban residents, to uncover the current usage of public digital services and levels of satisfaction with the digital resources/content in urban digital libraries (networked computers with specific information infrastructure designed free for public use).

A qualitative approach is used as a main stream in the research framework as the method of inquiry. Qualitative one‐to‐one interviews include surveying users who use public library websites, observing the users, consulting librarians about the users, and interviewing the users.

Provides demographic patterns of the patrons' interaction with the digital services public libraries provide, and the satisfaction and compliances the residents have regarding information access through the digital technology in urban/suburban Connecticut.

Because of the small number of participants, this study has limitations in being generalized to an understanding of overall patterns of urban residents using digital resources in public settings in the USA or elsewhere, however, it could be a good pilot study for a nation‐wide survey with the methods tested.

This study helps fulfill the scant empirical attention given to the impact access to public digital information or use of digital library services on the urban/suburban residents, offers new data that help public library administrators enhance the impact, efficiency and value of the public digital library services to improve the digital learning environments for life‐long education at all levels in a broad community of urban/suburban users.

This chapter examines the University of Connecticut (UConn) Neag School of Education's efforts to improve the recruitment of students of colour through an Early College Experience (ECE) Programme. During the pandemic, the School of Education and the ECE Programme collaborated to train and certify high school teachers to instruct the UConn's lower level undergraduate courses. The programme exposed many students of colour to teaching as a career.

CircCess, a 35‐member library network, was moving toward a major system upgrade when it discovered that the planned system would not support Boolean functions. An alternative approach to providing a shared catalog and linked circulation functions was sought, resulting in a CD‐ROM‐based solution. The process of developing the concept, unexpected problems associated with selecting a vendor, delays and problems resulting from an expansion of the original concept, and related issues are detailed.

This paper aims to describe a performance improvement process related to suicide assessment in a community mental health center. As suicide rates rise in the USA, it is crucial that community mental health providers are capable and comfortable to assess for suicide risk among individuals with mental illness. Support for healthcare providers is emphasized in the quadruple aim model of enhancing healthcare delivery and patient experience. The quadruple aim model is applied in the present performance improvement project in a community mental health center.

An interprofessional team used provider survey responses, critical incident data and other stakeholder input to implement a new assessment mechanism and education plan to support direct care staff to address suicide risk.

Although the rate of patient death by suicide at the community mental health center is low, managing risk is a frequent provider concern. Providers’ comfort assessing and managing suicide risk varied widely based on survey responses. A structured suicide assessment process was implemented to offer clarity and direction for providers. Education to address assessment and management was designed and implemented.

Suicide data were retrospective and limited to known deaths, thus there may have been higher numbers of deaths by suicide historically. Providers’ comfort with suicide risk management was based on self-report and future work should also integrate skills-based assessment.

Improving the provider experience in mental health care must be explored. Focusing on provider input and voice in suicide-related efforts in community settings is a step toward integrating the quadruple aim ideals into mental health care.

Past studies demonstrated the efficacy of integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for substance use disorder (SUD) and intimate partner violence (IPV) as well as high rates of depressive symptoms in this population. However, little is known about how depressive symptoms impact treatment outcomes. The authors hypothesized that integrated CBT, but not standard drug counseling (DC), would buffer the negative effects of depressive symptoms on treatment response.

A secondary analysis of a randomized trial compared men assigned to 12 weeks of integrated CBT for SUD and IPV (n = 29) to those in DC (n = 34).

Most (60%) of the sample reported any depressive symptoms. Controlling for baseline IPV, reporting any depressive symptoms was associated with more positive cocaine screens during treatment. Among men with depressive symptoms, integrated CBT but not DC was associated with fewer positive cocaine screens. Controlling for baseline alcohol variables, integrated CBT and depressive symptoms were each associated with less aggression outside of intimate relationships (family, strangers, etc.) during treatment. For men without depressive symptoms, integrated CBT was associated with less non-IPV aggression compared to DC. Effects were not significant for other substances, IPV, or at follow-up.

This study found some evidence for differential response to CBT by depressive symptoms on cocaine and aggression at end of treatment, which did not persist three months later. Future studies should explore mechanisms of integrated CBT for SUD and IPV, including mood regulation, on depressive symptoms in real-world samples.

Integrated CBT buffered depressive symptoms’ impact on cocaine use, yet only improved non-IPV aggression in men without depressive symptoms.

Although integrated CBT’s efficacy for improving SUD and IPV has been established, moderators of treatment response have not been investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, through the example of the Springfield Armory and its role in the development of interchangeable parts, the critical role of government in establishing a cluster of organizations that evolved into an innovation ecosystem primarily located in the Connecticut River Valley in the 1800s. Using the Springfield Armory example, we use the related but largely unjoined concepts of ecosystem and networks to show that these organizational forms are effective in driving innovation.

The design uses an in-depth analysis of the role of the Springfield Armory to explicate the joining of network and ecosystem theory as an early example of the importance of governmental funding and support for innovation.

The development of interchangeable parts in the American arms industry in the 19th century transformed manufacturing worldwide. At the heart of this transformation was the network of arms makers that developed in the Connecticut River Valley as a direct result of US Government investment and support. This network of arms makers evolved into an ecosystem of mutually reinforcing relationships as machine tool manufacturers benefited from an environment of free-flowing intellectual property, information and growing governmental demand for arms. The Armory illustrates the government’s role in initiating and sustaining clusters of innovation that otherwise might not have developed as quickly.

Much of the research on the role of government in creating innovation ecosystems and organizational networks is based on modern organizations. This use of the Springfield Armory in the early 1800s broadens the knowledge on how innovation ecosystems in conjunction with networked organizations can be created by governments serving the public good.