This project will adapt and test a leadership-focused implementation strategy targeting elementary school principals in buildings where universal social, emotional, and behavioral programs are being implemented.
Geographic Area: Washington
Development and testing of a research-based Tier 3 Wraparound model for schools
This project will adapt the defined, research-based, Wraparound care coordination model for youth with complex behavioral health needs to the education environment, including training curricula, installation protocols, fidelity measures, and other components. The project will initially convene national experts and local stakeholders who will review and aid in iterative refinement of materials, followed by a small-scale pre-post pilot, and culminating in a small-scale randomized pilot study comparing proximal and distal outcomes for 60 students in 6 elementary schools assigned to the “Tier 3 Wraparound” protocol versus services as usual.
Using technology to optimize Collaborative Care management of depression in urban and rural cancer centers (SCOPE)
This project aims to improve the treatment of depression in cancer patients. Up to 25% of people with cancer will become clinically depressed, significantly affecting their quality of life, functioning, and ability to tolerate cancer treatment. Unfortunately, about 75% of cancer patients with depression do not receive adequate treatment, and patients in rural settings are even less likely to receive adequate care. This study uses a human-centered design approach to develop, build, and test a web and mobile platform to enhance the implementation and fidelity of collaborative care management (CoCM) of depression for patients being treated at urban and rural cancer centers. In Phase I, patient-facing web and mobile applications and a clinician facing website will be developed. In Phase II, the technology-enhanced system will be compared to usual CoCM in a pragmatic effectiveness-implementation randomized controlled trial.
Preventing addiction related suicide
To evaluate the use of an existing selective suicide prevention intervention, Preventing Addiction Related Suicide (PARS), for use with Veterans by: 1) adapting and tailoring content to Veteran populations and 2) conducting an open trial within a VA substance use disorder intensive outpatient program.
Re-engineering siloed systems of care through evidence-integrated design thinking
Behavioral health, including suicidal behaviors and problematic substance use, are significant public health concerns and are routinely identified by community health departments as a high priority. However, needed services are highly fragmented across multiple systems (e.g., prevention, primary care, schools). Addressing these urgent public health concerns requires decisionmakers to collaborate and coordinate services. System-level planning efforts tend to fail because adopted models are either not informed by evidence, or policy decisions do not have sufficient community buy-in and are poorly implemented.
To address this gap, our team created a hybrid approach, “System Codesign,” in which researchers and local decisionmakers form a design workgroup and collaborate to create a tailored and sustainable plan to address community public health issues. This partnership approach allows end users to be actively involved in the design process to help ensure that the outcome meets the needs and expectations of the community. The researcher’s role is to locate and synthesize research findings relevant to the community agency’s goals and assist in integrating these principles within real world programming. This new “System Codesign” approach is built from well-established participatory and implementation frameworks and incorporates evidence-informed standards in research into the energy and creativity of design thinking to support local systems. This model is expected to incorporate evidence, innovation, and local relevance into final system products.
Our research team aims to assess the acceptability and feasibility of this “System Codesign” process as a tailored implementation method for tackling complex behavioral healthcare issues. Our aim is to partner with the state Healthcare Authority (HCA) to pilot this approach with a rural Washington community, Grays Harbor County, which has a high prevalence of behavioral health needs. The proposed design workgroup will leverage cross-system participation from behavioral health, justice, law enforcement, faith-based organizations, schools, and community members.
Harm reduction in the context of social distancing
The devastating impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic is expected to have impacts on young adults’ mental health and substance use (a population already at high risk). Time is of the essence to provide young adults evidence-based information to reduce risk from alcohol use within the context of COVID-19 epidemic, promote continuation of social distancing while also encouraging pro-social behavior to reduce isolation, and skills to reduce coping- or socially-motivated alcohol use and associated negative consequences. This project aims to develop and examine feasibility and acceptability of a time-sensitive COVID-19-specific personalized normative feedback intervention disseminated via social media that focuses on drinking motivations to cope with distress and/or to enhance social connectedness, as well as to promote engagement in strategies for stress management and increase engagement in social, alcohol-free activities while also practicing social distancing.
Attitudes, readiness, and adoption of digital health in community mental health centers during COVID-19 pandemic
The current study seeks to establish a baseline understanding of Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) adoption, readiness and attitudes towards digital mental health technologies overall and in the context of limited in-person availability. Mixed-method research strategies will be employed to survey and interview CMHC providers in these community settings.
Accountable Communities of Health
AIMS Center staff and faculty are working with primary care and behavioral health partners in each ACH to train staff and providers on whole person care strategies. This includes training primary care practices to adopt the Collaborative Care model and/or Bree Behavioral Health Integration Recommendations and training community behavioral health agencies to address the physical health needs of their clients.
Rural Mental Health Integration Initiative (RMHII)
The RMHII is a partnership between the AIMS Center and Premera Blue Cross to expand access to evidence-based mental health treatment in rural areas. The AIMS Center will lead clinic selection, training, technical assistance, and practice coaching for up to 30 primary care clinics in rural Washington and Alaska.
Moms’ Access Project ECHO: Perinatal Psychiatry Case Conference Series
Perinatal Psychiatry Case Conference Series is a CME-accredited program for providers in Washington State who want to improve the mental health of their pregnant and postpartum patients.
Facilitated by a multidisciplinary team including UW Medicine perinatal psychiatrists, obstetrician gynecologists, maternal fetal medicine experts, advanced registered nurse practitioners, therapists and social workers, the program aims to increase frontline provider capacity to address common mental disorders in pregnancy and postpartum. Program format is brief didactic followed by in depth case presentation and discussion.
