DSIR is invested in supporting research that will address these challenges. One area of interest to DSIR is in peer and community behavioral health task-sharing models to complement and increase the reach of licensed practitioners and to serve as a front-line service in crisis care. I encourage you to view the Suicide Prevention Research Team workshop led by Stephen O’Connor, Ph.D., Lisa Jaycox, Ph.D, and Jane Pearson, Ph.D., on peer-counseling models for suicide prevention, which included a discussion of best practices and potential research areas.

Another area of interest is the use of technology to support clinical decision-making and access to treatment in provider shortage areas. We support research on technology solutions in our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program (see NOT-MH-24-120) as well as through R01 applications and other research project grants (see NOT-MH-18-031). NIMH and DSIR recently signed onto a National Institute of Nursing Research supported funding opportunity to study methods to reduce disparities in rural areas, including novel technological and task sharing models. While the deadline for that announcement will have passed by the time this newsletter is released, we still want to see applications that address this disparity.

Parity and provider incentives to accept insurance and provide care to specialty and high clinical risk populations will be critical to ensure that the full mental health workforce, and peer and community workers are included. This often results in people needing to seek care out of network, even for commercial plans, Indeed out-of-network office visits are five times more common in mental health than for primary care visits, and is often due to in-network clinicians waiting lists, perceived lower quality of care in-network, and limited cultural competency.

Finally, we are interested in applications to study models that support clinicians in their work, including examination of case mix, the use of technology for decision support or stepped care, and task sharing to triage low intensity activities to providers who are the equivalent of a physician’s assistant. While we currently do not have relevant notices for this area, we are interested in seeing applications submitted on this topic.

Finally, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders will be hosting a workshop to discuss challenges and solutions to the workforce needs across the U.S.

Please welcome Shahrzad Mavandadi, Ph.D., into the DSIR Services Research and Clinical Epidemiology Branch. Dr. Mavandadi received her Ph.D. in health psychology, with a specialization in gerontology, from the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. Following her doctoral work, she completed a NIMH-funded postdoctoral fellowship in mental health and biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as a research scientist at the VISN4 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center (in Philadelphia).

Prior to joining us, Dr. Mavandadi served as Scientific Review Officer of the Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes study section at the NIH Center for Scientific Review.  She is an expert in mental health interventions and services research as well as quantitative data analysis methods.

Please welcome Cara Pugleise, Ph.D., into the DSIR TPIRB. Prior to joining us, Dr. Pugliese was a clinical psychologist at the Center for Autism at Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, and a tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Sciences, and Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. She is an expert in Autism Spectrum Disorder treatment and assessment in children. Her additional expertise in cognitive mediators and moderators of treatment outcomes, specifically executive functioning allows for a nice bridge between translational and clinical research.

We look forward to seeing our new team members’ portfolio grow in the future.

We bid a fond farewell to Susan Azrin, Ph.D., who retired in March of 2024 after 15 years of service in the Services and Clinical Epidemiology Research Branch. Dr. Azrin’s accomplishments include Program Officer for RAISE, Science Officer for the Mental Health Research Network, NIMH’s first Learning Health Care System, and Program Officer for EPINET, our newest Learning Health Care System. She will be starting a consulting business, and we wish her well in her future endeavors.