Funding Type: Foundation

Workforce Innovation and Leadership in Forensic Mental Health

The Center for Mental Health, Policy, and the Law (CMHPL), through an operations grant, is developing programming in Workforce Innovation and Leadership in Forensic Mental Health to address the forensic mental health workforce shortage.

The CMHPL anticipates the programming will have a direct impact on recruitment and retention of mental health professionals who work in forensic settings, as well as other public sector and psychiatric leadership roles. Through development of high-quality training, mentorship, consultation, and leadership development programming, the CMHPL is growing the number of clinicians with knowledge and aptitude to work with persons involved in the criminal justice system. In turn, this will engender high-quality patient services to improve access and care delivery to persons involved with the justice system and reduce the risk of prolonged or repeated cycles through the system.

WITH (Whole person Integrated Texting for Health)

Text messaging holds promise as a strategy for engaging older adults in depression treatment. The purpose of this project will be to develop and pilot test a text messaging intervention delivered in primary care settings practicing integrated care. Recent data shows that the vast majority of older adults have a cell phone and that about half have sent an email or text within the past month. Among that latter group, about one third reported they did so “most days.” There is research showing that text messaging with older adults is feasible that is focused on mental health was well received and effective. None of the prior studies looked at text messaging as an adjunct to mental health treatment delivered in primary care. This project will address that gap.

Collaborative care for perinatal mental health – the LAMMHA project

Los Angeles Maternal Mental Health Access (LAMMHA) is a five year program (2022 – 2027) funded by The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) to support health centers in Los Angeles to identify and treat common perinatal mental disorders (CPMD) and reduce the risk of suicide. The LAMMHA initiative is a collaboration between Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC), Elevation Health Partners (EHP), Maternal Mental Health Now (MMHN), Concert Health and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. Co-created with Los Angeles community stakeholders, the LAMMHA program currently offers Los Angeles County providers and community clinics two different levels of support to improve perinatal mental health care.

For more information and/or to apply for the program, please visit the CCALAC LAMMHA page: https://ccalac.org/los-angeles-maternal-mental-health-access-lammha/.

Behavioral Health Support Specialist (BHSS)

Our goals for this project include (1) Design competency framework and learning objectives that define the role and scope of practice for a BHSS; (2) Scale the role for Washington state by creating processes for integrating the BHSS Clinical Training Program into existing four-year degree programs in the behavioral healthcare field; (3) Partner with Washington state higher education institutions to adopt the BHSS Clinical Training Program; (4) Develop curricular resources to share with Washington State colleges and universities including an Educator’s Guide; (5) Collaborate with government agencies, employers, and policy groups to implement legislation establishing a BHSS credential in Washington state.

For information, please contact:
Bill O’Connell, Ed.D.
Director, Clinical Training Program

Savannah Tidwell, BS
tidwell1@uw.edu
Program Manager, Clinical Training Program

Establishing the Current State of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Implementation in the U.S.

This study aims to fill a significant knowledge gap that has impeded empirically-informed implementation and sustainability of high-fidelity Assertive Community Treatment (ACT). Investigators are conducting a survey of ACT stakeholders, including specialty adaptations (e.g., Forensic ACT [FACT]) across all U.S. states and territories, examining the relationship between ACT fidelity and outcomes, and examining contextual factors (e.g., financing and policy) that impact high-fidelity ACT implementation and sustainability.

Global Mental Health Databank (MindKind)

The goal of this study is to learn how best to design a databank – a pool of data – about emotional health experiences from youth from around the world. The University of Washington is partnering with Sage Bionetworks to develop a user-friendly data platform for mental health interventions for youth. The overall scope of this project is to recruit 1,500 youth in South Africa, India, and the UK (each) to engage in a mental health intervention and both share their data and help co-design a user-friendly database for lay people, researchers and other key stakeholders. The University of Washington will provide global mental health expertise to Sage’s team to guide design, implementation, and interpretation of data collected.

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.

Maternal-Infant Dyad Implementation (MInD-I)

The MInD-I study targets improving dissemination of the evidence based Collaborative Care treatment model for pregnant and postpartum women with depression. Longitudinal remote consultation (LRC) is an implementation strategy that has been have shown to improve fidelity to evidence-based practices and patient outcomes for mental health innovations. The investigators believe LRC can be used with equal benefit for complex interventions such as CC.

The purpose of this study is to compare two implementation strategies for Collaborative Care depression treatment: 1) standard implementation and 2) standard implementation + Longitudinal Remote Consultation (LRC). This research is being done in order to assess implementation and patient outcomes in sites receiving a standard implementation approach with and without LRC. The results of the proposed study will provide information on the benefits and relative value of ongoing consultation, such as LRC, for implementation of complex interventions like collaborative care.