GREETINGS
Greetings Outreach and National Partners,
It is hard to believe eight months have passed since I joined the NIMH as Director. It has been a busy and productive time. I have learned a lot about the science NIMH funds and have benefitted from the opportunity to meet with several of the national advocacy groups. For those of you whom I have not had the chance to meet, let me share some background about me and my initial thoughts about the NIMH research agenda. For over a decade, I was on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. While I spent the majority of my time as a basic scientist studying how psychiatric risk genes alter the function of neural circuits, and how neural circuit dysfunction leads to psychiatrically relevant behaviors, I also treated patients and witnessed first-hand their struggles to achieve recovery from mental illness. As I round out the last four months of my first year at NIMH, I look forward to the opportunity to meet all of you and hear more about the needs of individuals with mental illnesses and their families and the gaps in knowledge that can and must inform the NIMH’s current and future research agenda.
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I will have much more to say at the end of my first year about the priorities of the Institute, but for now I can tell you that I am focused on supporting excellent science within a balanced portfolio with short-, medium-, and long-term timeframes. I’ve identified three priority areas in this context. A short-term goal is suicide prevention, where research into how to implement evidence-based practices, such as increasing detection of suicidality through universal screening in emergency rooms, could have an impact. A medium-term goal is to understand the neural circuitry underlying the devastating symptoms of mental illness and to ultimately translate that understanding into novel interventions. Lastly, a long-term goal is to bring much more precision to our understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through computational psychiatry, which means using math to integrate everything we know, from molecular biology to behavior, into our models of how the brain works. We also must maintain a focus on translating and disseminating the science we fund, which is why I was so pleased to learn about the Outreach Partnership Program. The work that you do to make the public aware of the importance of research and the results of that research both in your states and nationally is incredibly important. Thank you and, again, I look forward to meeting all of you.
Sincerely, Joshua Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., NIMH Director
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Outreach Partners have been disseminating NIMH materials and research findings throughout their states.
The Arizona State University's Center for Applied Behavioral Health partners with the state Mental Health America affiliate in Arizona to incorporate NIMH news regularly in its enewsletter.
MHA California shared the availability of NIMH ebooks via Facebook.
NAMI Indiana featured the NIMH-funded Human Connectome Project about Early Psychosis in its newsletter.
MHA of Louisiana distributed NIMH materials at a statewide health summit for providers and the public and highlighted its partnership with NIMH with the new Outreach Partner exhibit sign.
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The Indian Center, the Nebraska Outreach Partner, has created a new NIMH News Update enewsletter to share new research findings and resources from NIMH.
As part of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, Nevada PEP held its annual Run Walk and Roll against Bullying to raise awareness about children's mental health and bullying. Statistics from the NIMH website were incorporated in signs at the finish line and held by participants as they ran or walked the course.
NAMI North Carolina tweeted NIMH-funded study findings about the need for better interventions to reduce violence committed by and against adults with mental illness.
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The Institute for Psychological Research at the University of Puerto Rico disseminated NIMH publications at a mental health exhibit during a symposium for grandparents who are parenting grandchildren.
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The MHA of Middle Tennessee conducted a targeted outreach campaign to its university, community mental health centers, and other community partners to broaden the reach of NIMH resources. As a result, the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance incorporated links to NIMH on its Community Engagement website, and featured the MHA’s efforts to educate the community about mental health in a news story.
NAMI Wyoming distributed NIMH materials on bipolar disorder, suicide, PTSD, depression, and anxiety to support high school students who are planning awareness activities on suicide prevention and bullying in their community.
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Thanks to the Partners who continue to share what was learned at the Program's 2016 Annual Meeting in their own communities.
MHA Montana presented to five Tribal communities that want to expand and/or integrate primary care and behavioral health services to include peer support services.To generate the discussion, MHA distributed NIMH materials and information from the Annual Meeting’s panel on addressing disparities in mental health care.
MHA Texas summarized Annual Meeting presentations about device-based and pharmacologic advancements for the treatment of refractory depression for its enewsletter.
Outreach Partners are using NIMH materials and research in their efforts to address mental health disparities.
MHA of Southeast Florida (MHASEFL) distributed NIMH materials and used NIMH data in presentations to older adults to support the local elder services resource network.
NAMI St. Louis, the Missouri Outreach Partner, distributed NIMH materials as part of its Public Safety Mental Health First Aid training to corrections officers in the local county jail system.
NAMI Oregon distributed NIMH Spanish-language materials at its NAMI de Familia-a-Familia class for Spanish speaking residents who have a family member living with mental illness.
The Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota hosted its annual American Indian Health Research Conference in which attendees heard information on health disparities, including mental health, in American Indian communities. NIMH materials were distributed to conference attendees as well as a flyer detailing information about the Center’s role as the North Dakota Outreach Partner.
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The University of New Mexico distributed NIMH pamphlets at a training to demystify opioid and alcohol abuse detoxification with providers and community members, many representing Navajo and other indigenous groups.
Outreach Partners are informing their communities about NIMH-funded clinical trials actively recruiting participants.
NAMI Connecticut promoted the NIMH-funded MindMap study, which is being conducted at Yale University and seeks to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis, on its website.
MHASEFL is promoting NIMH intramural research on irritability in children to its constituents through its mailing list and social media and directly to participants at resource fairs and classes.
MHA of New York City tweeted about an NIMH intramural study about depression and teenagers.
Through its Voices of Recovery support and advocacy group, MHA of Southeastern Pennsylvania educates the community about participating in research and points participants to a webpage of local research opportunities.
Partners are educating their communities about the importance of research and the research process.
MHA Colorado tweeted about the NIMH webinar about clinical research to educate its community about the research process.
NAMI Michigan’s affiliate, NAMI Washtenaw, held a session with Aislinn Williams, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Michigan Psychiatry Department who described her work using induced pluripotent stem cells to study bipolar disorder as part of efforts to build relationships between scientists and the community.
NIMH grantee Sophia Vinogradov, M.D., Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota shared the university's research activities, including how they are protecting human subjects in research, at the NAMI Minnesota’s Research Dinner.
SARDAA, a National Partner, described clinical research studies and volunteer participation in its enewsletter.
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