Director

This NIMH-funded Developing Center for Innovation in Services and Intervention Research bridges the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and NYSPI/Columbia University in three academic Divisions:

• Mental Health Services and Policy Research, with chief Susan Essock, PhD;
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; and
• Biostatistics and Data Coordination, with Naihua Duan, PhD.

The Center’s overarching goals are to:

• advance knowledge about effective implementation and dissemination strategies to increase the adoption of evidence-based clinical services for children and families in outpatient clinics and schools;
• provide guidance to other States on implementation of evidence-based practices; and
• promote a participatory research agenda that reflects the partnership of treatment developers, families and family advocates, clinicians, supervisors, clinic directors, and OMH policy-makers, including the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners.

Specific studies are examining a set of organizational contextual strategies to improve implementation efficiency and effectiveness, to enhance engagement and activation of clinicians and families, and to refine measurement tools for assessing multi-level change. Locating this Center directly within the OMH addresses the widely-recognized gap between research and practice and provides a forum for accelerating the integration of research-based approaches directly into the public mental health system.