The overarching purpose of the research is to adapt and pilot test a technology-enhanced training for hospital nurses in the delivery of a suicide prevention intervention with patients hospitalized for medical reasons.
Funding Type: Federal
Project SARAH (Sexual Assault, Recovery & Hope)
Project SARAH is a randomized clinical trial providing treatment for PTSD and alcohol use in the first year following sexual assault for individuals who identify as female. The study aims to test 1) the role of fear and reward in recovery following sexual assault; 2) the efficacy of a PTSD vs an alcohol intervention for promoting recovery; and 3) the type and amount of intervention needed to best promote recovery (e.g., whether individuals need both PTSD and alcohol interventions and whether recovery is improved by intervening on PTSD or alcohol use first).
Volunteer-delivery of behavioral activation for senior center clients
This developmental project examines the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary impact of Volunteer-delivered Behavioral Activation (BA), in comparison to MSW-delivered BA, among depressed senior center clients.
Gender Exploration of Neurogenetics and Development to Advanced Autism Research (GENDAAR 2.0)
The GENDAAR 2.0 study is part of the Autism Center of Excellence (ACE Network), which includes researchers from across the country. The main goal of this follow up study is to investigate the transition through adolescence and into young adulthood. We aim to identify sex differences in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and look at their brain development during this important transition. We will compare the data collected with individuals with ASD, to siblings of children with ASD and children with no family history of ASD. We will use a variety of methods: neuropsychological testing, EEG, fMRI, and genetics. By learning more about sex differences, we aim to improve techniques for diagnosis and interventions.
Connectivity in the Brain and Autism (COBRA) Study
The COBRA study seeks to identify the specific neural circuits that are altered in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our experiments test the strength of “divisive normalization”, a measure that describes how neurons in the brain suppress each other. Our hypothesis is that suppressive interactions are reduced in individuals with ASD. Because suppressive neural interactions are well understood in the visual system, we use it as a model system. Suppressive neural interactions are measured in response to precisely controlled visual stimuli with a variety of brain measures including functional MRI to index neural responses, diffusion MRI to describe their anatomical connections, and EEG to understand their dynamics.
Autism biomarkers consortium for clinical trials
This is a multicenter longitudinal study that aims to identify, develop and validate a set of measures that can be used as stratification biomarkers and/or sensitive and reliable objective measures of social impairment in ASD that could serve as markers of long term clinical outcome.
The Life Enhancing Alcohol-management Program 2.0 (LEAP 2.0)
LEAP 2.0 builds on a longstanding partnership between the UW HaRRT Center and housing first residents, staff, and management of DESC. The pilot program was developed through a community based participatory research framework, and entails low-barrier, community-level, house-wide resident programming—including leadership opportunities, activities, and pathways to recovery. Results from the pilot indicated that LEAP participants reported more engagement in meaningful activities than their control counterparts. Further, higher levels of engagement with the LEAP predicted significant reductions in alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. To build on these promising findings, in LEAP 2.0, we will be conducting a 10-site, cluster-randomized controlled trial to assess LEAPs impact on substance use, health, cost and service utilization, as well as quality of life outcomes.
Eastern Mediterranean partnership to implement the regional framework for mental health: going to scale with school mental health
An estimated 10-20% of children globally are affected by a mental health problem. Child mental health has been identified as a priority within the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO EMRO). Following consultations with international and regional experts and stakeholders, WHO EMRO developed an evidence-based manualised School Mental Health Intervention (EMRO SMHI), endorsed by all member countries, including Pakistan, where the federal and provincial health departments have made plans for phased national implementation at scale.
We will conduct research in Pakistan embedded within national implementation of the EMRO SMHI applying scalable technological and social innovations developed and feasibility-tested in Pakistan. Capacity building will be embedded within the project with focus on child mental health. The research team will partner with the Pakistan Health Ministry and the WCC-IoP to both study and assist its scale-up plans by integrating our technological and social innovation. We hypothesise that use of the innovation will lead to improvements in both clinical and implementation outcomes.
Southern African Research Consortium for Mental Health Integration (S-MHINT)
S-MhINT is a research and capacity building consortium in Southern Africa that aims to strengthen regional mental health integration into primary health, antenatal, and chronic care platforms using implementation science in under-resourced areas of eastern South Africa, central Mozambique, and southern Tanzania.
S-MhINT has the following overall aims: 1) To establish and engage a trans- disciplinary Research consortium of academics, government representatives, non-governmental organizations in South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania to address the burden of common mental disorders in primary Health care settings; 2) To examine multi-level influences on the uptake, implementation, effectiveness and sustainability of an existing scale up of an integrated Mental health package for chronic disorders at primary Health care level in two different districts having different resource capacities in South Africa; 3) To build implementation science and dissemination Research capacity in South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania, recruiting service providers, managers, and policy makers as trainees, providing real world opportunities, mentorship, and necessary knowledge to conduct optimal scale-up of evidence-based integrated Mental Health care.
Developing a tailored implementation plan for Collaborative Care of perinatal depression care in Community Health Centers in Vietnam
Perinatal depression is a common and serious disorder, with suicide representing a major cause of maternal mortality, but few women from low and middle income countries (LMICs) receive effective treatment. Effective models of care that improve perinatal depression and support suicide prevention exist but have not yet been widely implemented in routine maternal-child care services in LMICs. We plan to use a participatory approach to systematically identify and adapt key elements of evidence based models of perinatal depression care delivery to the cultural and health services context of Can Tho, Vietnam. Simultaneous exploration of potential implementation strategies to support and sustain this model in context will be identified along with the creation of a training and implementation toolkit for this setting. Using these strategies and tools we will then carry out a pilot perinatal collaborative care study in a public health center and the prenatal care practice of the Can Tho Obstetric and Gynecologic Hospital. The results of this pilot will be used to revise and enhance the treatment model and related implementation tools. These will be used in subsequent trials of effectiveness and/or implementation broadly in the health care system of Can Tho.
