Center Sponsored Studies

Center Related Studies

Center Sponsored Studies

Establishing Ethnographic Grounding of Interventions for Trauma-Related Problems: Community and Sociocultural Context
(Study 1)

Joyce Chung, MD, PI

• The overall goal is to understand the institutional and clinical contexts of the settings where interventions will be implemented
  
• Recruitment of administrators, clinicians, and patients from three community partnership organizations
  
• Primary aim is to describe the organization of primary care for the underserved, the clinical context of care, and characteristics of the population treated in the three jurisdictions of our community partners

Methods of Screening, Recruitment, and Retention (Study 2)

Mary Ann Dutton, PhD, PI

• The overall goal is to examine the effectiveness of recruitment and retention methods for low-income, African-American women with interpersonal trauma histories into a clinical study
  
• Recruitment of patients from primary care setting in community
  
• Primary aims are to assess the effectiveness alternative screening methods, to evaluate the influence of two alternative methods on retention; and to assess and compare the costs of these two retention strategies

Effectiveness Trial of a Group Intervention for Interpersonal Trauma (Study 3)

Janice Krupnick, PhD, PI

• The overall goal is to develop a modular repeating psychoeducation and coping skills support group intervention that can be conducted by nursing staff
  
• Recruitment in community partner clinics
  
• Primary aim it to systematically assess intervention’s effectiveness compared to education and screening only

Selected Center-Related Studies

The Cultural and Linguistic Competence Health Practitioner Assessment CME Model

Suzanne Bronheim, PhD & Tawara Goode, MA, Co-Directors, Center for Child and Human Development

• Aims: Web-based curriculum to increase physician knowledge and self-awareness as they apply to treating depression in diverse primary care populations
• National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC)
• Funding from Initiative for Decreasing Disparities in Depression supported by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals 

Ethnographic Studies of Depression and Help-seeking

Joyce Chung, MD, PI

• Aims: To investigate sociocultural barriers to mental health care among low-income African Americans and to develop community based interventions
  
• Funded by NIMH (K-23)

Telehealth Trauma Interventions for Low-SES Abused Women

Mary Ann Dutton, PhD, PI; Stacey Kaltman, PhD; Elizabeth Krause, PhD; Maria Thestrup (Project Coordinator)
Psychiatry

• Aims: to develop an innovative, culturally competent, and enhanced PTSD intervention to address the mental health needs of low-SES, African American women.
  
• The CONNECT intervention will be evaluated preliminarily for its effectiveness and cost.
  
• Funded by NIMH (R34)

Trauma and Loss-Related Mental Health Needs of Latina Immigrants in Communities

Stacey Kaltman , PhD (PI), Bonnie L. Green, PhD (Mentor), Maria Cecilia Zea, PhD (Co-Mentor)

• Aims: To study trauma and loss exposure and its mental health impact from the perspective of low-income Latina immigrants from Central America in community service settings.  To develop and preliminarily pilot an adapted community-based intervention to address the specific trauma and loss-related mental health needs of low-income Latina immigrants from Central America.
  
• Population:  Latina immigrants primarily from Central America
• Funded by NIMH for 5 years

Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for Female Veterans who have Experienced Military Trauma

Janice Krupnick, PhD, PI, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC
Nancy Talbot, PhD, PI, Deapartment of Veterans Affairs, Rochester, NY

• Aims: To adapt Interpersonal Psychotherapy for trauma survivors to women who have experienced trauma during the past five years while they were serving in the military.
  
• Population: Women who present to the trauma unit at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, seeking mental health care who reach threshold levels of symptoms of PTSD and/or major depressive disorder
• Funded by the Center of Excellence, awarded to the VA Healthcare Network of Upstate New York at Canandaigua (PI of Center of Excellence:  Kerry Knox, PhD)

Mothers and Babies

Mimi Le, PhD, PI, GWU Department of Psychology
Deborah Perry, PhD, Co-PI, Center for Child and Human Development, GU Pediatrics

• Aims: to develop a preventive intervention for post-partum depression; to evaluate its effectiveness using a randomized controlled trial
  
• Population: High risk Latina women in DC receiving prenatal care at the Mary's Center
  
• $1.5 million over 4 years from MCHB, DHHS

Prevention of Child Neglect

Sharon Ramey, PhD, Craig Ramey, PhD, Bette Keltner, PhD, and Robin Lanzi, PhD
Center on Health and Education, School of Nursing and Health Studies; Teen Parenting Project

• Aims: To develop sensitive measures of early neglect, identify empirically conditions that increase or decrease neglect among teen parents, and to refine a conceptual framework that will inform strategic interventions
  
• Population: Teen mothers & adult mothers (high & low resource) and their babies
  
• Sites: Georgetown University, University of Notre Dame, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Kansas, University of Texas-Health Science Center at Houston
  
• Funding: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  
  
Prevention of Neglect Intervention

• Aims: To assess the impact of a promising, focused intervention to increase parents’ sense of responsibility, decision-making skills, awareness of dimensions of neglect, knowledge about child development, and quality of parenting interactions with their infants and young children.
  
• Population: High-risk mothers as defined by pregnant teenage status or adult mothers without high school degrees and their babies
  
• Similar sites and funding as Teen Parenting Project

Aza (Powerful) Sisters: An HIV Prevention Program for African American Girls

Tiffany Townsend, PhD (PI), Janice Krupnick, PhD, Tammi Bishop, PhD, MBA, and Iris Allen (Project Coordinator)

• Aims: to develop and pilot a culturally appropriate HIV prevention program for African American adolescent girls (11-13), with special attention to the needs of girls who may have a history of childhood abuse/trauma.
• Population: 6th grade girls attending public or chartered elementary schools in Washington DC, Ward 7.
• Funded by National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) for two years