This project aims to develop pragmatic self-report measures of: 1) clinician adherence to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and 2) DBT program fidelity. These measures will be tested among DBT clinicians in routine practice settings to evaluate their reliability and validity.
Targeted Condition: Serious Mental Illness
Disseminating a user-friendly guide: Advancing the science of intervention adaptation and improving access to evidence-based psychological treatment
Adaptation of evidence-based practices and programs (EBPs) is a necessary component of the implementation process. EBPs must be adapted to function with the constraints of real-world practice settings, providers’ expertise, and patients’ needs. The science of intervention adaptation is hungry for well-defined methods of EBP adaptation to guide decision making. A how-to guide for EBP adaptation titled MODIFI: Making Optimal Decisions for Intervention Flexibility during Implementation, is under development with NIMH funding (F32 MH116623). MODIFI will be disseminated via multiple strategies locally, nationally, and internationally. Dissemination of MODIFI will improve the practice of intervention adaptation by providing practitioners with a how-to guide that is (a) evidence-based, (b) usable, and (c) supported by the expert consensus of implementation practitioners and researchers.
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.
mHealth in West Africa: developing an evidence-based psychosocial intervention toolkit
There is a shortage of skilled mental health providers in Ghana. Due to the prevalence of traditional faith healers, coupled with the established infrastructure that faith healers in Ghana have, global mental health leaders have argued that these paraprofessionals may be leveraged as conduits of basic illness management strategies.
This study aims to: 1) Employ user-centered mixed-method rapid ethnographic data collection strategies to conduct a targeted needs assessment, and 2) Distill and integrate findings from all data sources to identify content and usability requirements for a human-centered, culturally/contextually-informed multi-media mHealth toolkit for healers.
Developing a digital training resource for clinicians learning CBT for psychosis (CBTpro)
This project aims to develop and test a digital health resource to provide training and feedback to community mental health clinicians aiming to learn CBT for psychosis (CBTpro). Following the development and iterative testing of the CBTpro prototype, we will recruit 100 community mental health providers and 300 clients with psychosis from two large, publicly-funded community mental health agencies, and randomize them to receive either CBTpro or typical training resources. Following the intervention period, we will examine clinician CBT adherence and competency as well as patient psychotic symptoms.
Pilot study of mHealth for Veterans with serious mental illness
This project aims to examine the feasibility and acceptability of FOCUS, a mobile self-management intervention for individuals with serious mental illnesses. We will recruit 30 veterans receiving services at VA Puget Sound and provide FOCUS for one month, examining feasibility of integrating this intervention into outpatient VA services, acceptability to veterans, and preliminary outcomes including depression, psychotic symptoms, sleep, and recovery.
