GREETINGS
Partners,
During my first year as the NIMH Director, I heard a great deal about your work to bring the latest mental health research findings into your communities. It was a pleasure to finally meet you at the Outreach Partnership Program Annual Meeting this July. I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time over lunch with a small group of you discussing the mental health priorities in your states. I also appreciated learning about your mental health outreach and education projects during the Sharing Sessions.
The meeting was an excellent opportunity to hear first-hand from experts and researchers in areas such as suicide prevention, mood disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. I know many of you were tweeting from the meeting, and others have published summaries of the research shared at the meeting in newsletters and on websites. It is impressive to witness your organization's efforts to make mental health research more accessible to the public.
I am pleased to share this special meeting issue of Outreach Connection, which features highlights from the annual meeting, including your efforts to extend the meeting's reach into your own communities.
Sincerely, Joshua Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., NIMH Director
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Meeting Highlights
Representatives from Outreach and National Partner organizations gathered on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Campus for the NIMH Outreach Partnership Program's 2017 Annual Meeting to hear research updates from NIMH leadership and NIMH-supported researchers.
Dr. Gordon also shared a number of recent science highlights, including research from the NIMH-funded Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) study on racial and ethnic differences in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment in health care systems across the country, and a study that found a pediatrics-based brief therapy had better outcomes than a more standard referral to mental health care with follow-up for youths with anxiety and depression, especially for Hispanic youth. He also stressed the need for individuals with mental illnesses to become involved in research, and described the potential of what can be learned to enhance the understanding and care of mental illnesses from big data research approaches.
As an example of a major effort, he described the potential for the NIH All of Us Research Program to improve the treatment of mental illnesses. Dr. Gordon's remarks set the stage for a talk by Eric Dishman, Director of the All of Us Research Program, a historic effort to gather data from one million U.S. participants and accelerate research that will ultimately pave the way for personalized medicine. Mr. Dishman shared his personal story as a cancer patient, patient advocate, and social scientist, and outlined the program’s priorities and plans to engage and nurture relationships with one million volunteers. He informed partners of ways they could hear about upcoming national recruitment efforts, including his video blog, The Dish. Recent blogs describe the program's mission and objectives, and Mr. Dishman's story and his passion to lead this effort.
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The meeting also highlighted partner activities in forums such as the Partner Sharing Sessions, in which over 65 Outreach and National Partners and Federal agencies shared examples of how they are disseminating NIMH-funded research and educating the public, families, and other stakeholders about mental health.
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Major portions of the meeting focused on suicide prevention, particularly efforts to address risk in health care settings.
In a plenary on approaches to detecting suicide risk in healthcare systems, NIMH Senior Advisor for Mental Health Services, Epidemiology, and Economics Michael Schoenbaum, Ph.D., described collaborative research efforts with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the MRHN using electronic health records to identify groups of individuals at high risk for suicide. He stressed the need for communities and health care systems to track suicide attempts and mortality to best address the increased numbers of suicides, a growing public health problem. Edwin Boudreaux, Ph.D., from the University of Massachusetts Medical School discussed findings from the Emergency Department Safety Assessment and Follow-up Evaluation (ED-SAFE) study that looked at universal suicide screening and brief intervention in the emergency department setting. Dr. Boudreaux highlighted resources from SAMHSA's Suicide Prevention Resource Center for emergency department health care professionals and about Zero Suicide efforts for communities seeking to address suicide in medical settings.
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NIMH grantees from the University of Pittsburgh shared their research on psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorder.
Breakout sessions featured Partner and Federal efforts to reach populations experiencing mental health disparities, specifically Native American and Alaska Native communities, and youth transitioning into adulthood.
Building Resilience Among Native Communities
Supporting Healthy Youth Transitions to Adulthood
Eric Lulow from SAMHSA described the needs of transition age youth (TAY) and particular vulnerabilities for those experiencing or at risk for mental illnesses. He described SAMHSA's Healthy Transitions, an initiative designed to help states build collaborative partnerships to enhance mental health services for TAY. Kisha Ledlow from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services then described one of SAMHSA's grants, the Tennessee Healthy Transitions Initiative, aimed at implementing a youth participatory action research project with TAY. Mr. Lulow also shared SAMHSA's Youth Engagement Guide, which was developed to help agencies adopt best practices in engaging youth in activities.
Zima Creason, Executive Director of Mental Health America (MHA) of California –- the NIMH Outreach Partner for Northern California –-shared lessons learned from the California Youth Empowerment Network, which empowers TAY to be leaders in community and mental health system transformation, and to create positive change through the promotion of culturally appropriate supports, services, and approaches that improve and maintain the mental health of California’s TAY.
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To support Outreach Partners in their efforts to educate the public about clinical research, the meeting's final session addressed questions communities have about participating in studies.
Social workers from the NIMH IRP Human Subjects Protection Unit described the protections that are in place for adults and children who participate in NIMH studies at the NIH Clinical Center, including a capacity assessment of a potential volunteer’s ability to provide informed consent. To provide an overview about the experience of participating in an intramural study, two NIMH research investigators shared what individuals and families may expect when contacting NIMH to enroll and participate in a study. In addition, a former participant in an NIMH ketamine inpatient study shared her experience as a research volunteer, including how she learned of the study, what factors contributed to her decision to join the study, and discharge planning.
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During the meeting, many Partners shared highlights with constituents back home using the #NIMHOPP2017 Twitter hashtag and other social media.
Ken Norton, Executive Director of NAMI New Hampshire, tweeted from Dr. Schoenbaum's talk on detecting suicide risk.
Dan Aune, Executive Director of MHA Montana, shared information about dialectical behavioral therapy.
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MHA Georgia's Executive Director, Jewell Gooding, posted photos from the meeting on Instagram.
During the meeting's final session, NAMI New York State (NAMI NYS) tweeted appreciation for hearing from a former research participant.
After returning to their communities, Partners continued to share what they learned at the meeting. NAMI NYS posted a summary on social media. The District of Columbia Behavioral Health Association, NAMI New Jersey, NAMI Utah, and NAMI Washington also highlighted the meeting in their newsletters.
Nebraska Outreach Partner, the Indian Center, Inc., shared their involvement in the meeting in a recent enewsletter.
Thank you to all the Partners for making the meeting a success! We look forward to continuing to hear about how you are extending the reach of the meeting.
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