Category: Dissemination & Implementation Science
Brenna Renn, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Joel Sherrill, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
National Institute of Mental Health
Bethesda, Maryland
Patricia Arean, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Professor
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Brenna Renn, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Patrick Raue, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Professor
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Emily Bower, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
Pacific University
Hillsboro, Oregon
Despite the prevalence of common mental health conditions and the effectiveness of psychotherapy as a first-line treatment, a majority of U.S. adults do not receive treatment, often because of provider shortage. New models of care are desperately needed to expand the capacity and reach of the mental/behavioral health workforce. One such model is equipping nonspecialist providers to deliver brief interventions, thereby expanding access and freeing up limited expert resources.
This symposium highlights four demonstrations of community-engaged research designed to improve access to mental/behavioral healthcare, with an emphasis on populations underserved by traditional mental health care (i.e., older adults, adults in primary care, rural communities). The projects span a variety of service settings and treatment targets; however, all aim to directly address this gap in services by expanding, extending, or enhancing the workforce via nonspecialist-delivered interventions.
After providing a general overview of the workforce shortage, the first presenter will describe an innovative program designed to train bachelor-level nonspecialist providers to deliver CBT strategies to adults with common mental health conditions. This presentation will also emphasize policy development and implications. The second presentation will expand on this first presentation by detailing the development of the anxiety treatment package to be used in this nonspecialist program, focusing on engagement from clinical and community partners to guide development. The third presenter will describe the methods and share preliminary findings of a three-site randomized controlled trial comparing a streamlined version of volunteer-delivered behavioral activation (BA) to clinician-delivered BA for depressed senior center clients. The fourth presenter will discuss an intervention to improve social connection among frequent users of a statewide loneliness hotline for older adults., delivered by a non-clinician. Taken together, these projects have the potential to shift mental health services paradigms in the U.S.
The Discussant will synthesize these findings in the broader context of dissemination and implementation science and highlight how this work aligns with current NIMH priorities for intervention and services research. The Discussant will comment on the pressing need to transform both how research is conducted and how services are delivered in order to ensure better access, sustained fidelity, and better outcomes in non-specialty mental health settings. The symposium will conclude with an interactive discussion between the presenters, discussant, and attendees around the timely topic of adapting interventions and implementation strategies to ensure wider dissemination—and ultimately uptake—of evidence-based practices.