ITR News Roundup – March

ITR program news

The Institute for Translational Research in Children’s Mental Health (ITR) runs a number of programs, from research to implementation, meant to bridge the gap between research and practice in children’s mental health. 


CPPR publishes special edition of the Journal of Prevention Science

ITR’s Center for Personalized Prevention Research recently published a special issue of the Journal of Prevention Science, titled “Moving Toward a Precision-Based, Personalized Framework for Prevention Science.” The special edition, curated by ITR core faculty members Gerald August and Abigail Gewirtz, is based on content from ITR’s 2016 symposium on the same topic. Read the issue here.
 

Cook awarded Article of the Year by School Psychology Review

ITR core faculty member Clay Cook received the Article of the Year Award from School Psychology Review for a paper he published with his colleagues on cultivating positive student-teacher relationships.
 

ADAPT program receives grant to expand work with military parents

ITR’s After Deployment: Adaptive Parenting Tools (ADAPT)program recently received a $1.1 million grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to implement the ADAPT program into Womack Army Medical Center’s primary care pediatric system. Womack is the medical system-of-care for Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the nation’s largest medical installation. To our knowledge, this would be the first time a parenting program would be integrated into a primary care system serving military families. The implementation process is scheduled to begin this summer.


Watch ITR colloquium with methodologist Danny Almirall

“Adaptive interventions” represent an exciting new frontier in evidence-based practices. A growing body of research shows that the effective prevention or treatment of a wide variety of health disorders often requires individualized, sequential decision-making. However, designing adaptive interventions requires new and different methods for developing and testing these programs.

To explore these questions, ITR recently  hosted adaptive intervention expert Daniel Almirall as part of its 2019 colloquium series. Dr. Almirall is an expert in developing methods for adaptive interventions and has a deep body of work on new approaches to data collection and analysis. He is a research professor at the University of Michigan and co-director of the Data Science for Dynamic Intervention Decision-Making Lab.Watch Dr. Almirall’s talk here.

ADAPT’s Shauna Tiede honored at CEHD Spring Assembly

Shauna Tiede, assistant program manager for ITR’s APAPT program focused on military parenting, was recently honored with an Operational Excellence Award from the College of Education and Human Development.


Affiliated faculty news

ITR brings together leading faculty researchers from multiple disciplines whose explicit goal is to synergize their research expertise in unprecedented ways. This affords us the ability to seamlessly apply research findings in the lab, to experimental designs in the field, to evidence-based trainings across the state. 

Rich Lee awarded Distinguished McKnight University Professorship

Affiliated faculty member Rich Lee was recently awarded the Distinguished McKnight University Professorship, which recognizes outstanding faculty members who have recently achieved full professor status.

Dr. Lee’s research focuses on the role of culture, race, and ethnicity in Asian American mental health and his groundbreaking, internationally recognized research has helped to establish the field of ethnic minority and cultural psychology. Read more.
 

Katie Lingras testifies to senate about training pediatric residents in children’s mental health

Affiliated faculty member Katie Lingras recently testified to the Minnesota Senate urging the legislature to fund training for pediatric residents for the treatment of adolescent mental health. The push is a collaboration between the University’s Department of Pediatrics and School of Psychology. Affiliated faculty member Andrew Barnes is also part of the project.

Faith Miller’s paper receives runner up for Article of the Year from Journal of School Psychology

Affiliated faculty member Faith Miller recently received the runner-up Article of the Year award from the Journal of School Psychology for a paper she published with her colleagues on methods for analyzing student behavior.
 


Alisha Wackerle-Hollman featured on Mom Enough podcast

Affiliated faculty member Alisha Wackerle-Hollman was recently featured on the popular Mom Enough podcast, discussing on effective language stimulation for children. The Minnesota-based Mom Enough organization provides motherhood resources to parents, medical professionals, and teachers. Listen here.


New research from Jeff Waid

Affiliated faculty member Jeff Waid focuses on the role of healthy family relationships in the development of favorable outcomes for children who are at risk of or are currently experiencing maltreatment. He has published two recent papers related to ITR’s work:

  • Waid, J., & Uhrich, M. (2019). A scoping review of the theory and practice of positive youth development. British Journal of Social Work, 0, 1-20. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcy130
  • Waid, J., & Wojciak, A. (2019). Evaluating the impact of camp-based reunification on the resilience of siblings separated by foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 100, 274-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.03.011


Events


Spring conference on cultural competence

ITR’s Ambit Network and Center for Resilient Families are hosting a spring conference focused on cultural competence in community practice. The half-day conference will take place June 27 and is targeted to mental health practitioners, organizational leaders, researchers and program developers. Learn more and RSVP here.

Upcoming workshop on “just-in-time” adaptive interventions

An upcoming meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Minneapolis will focus on cutting-edge approaches to methods in research. The workshop, “Optimizing Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions for Mobile Health” will take place June 21 with researchers Susan Murphy and Pedja Klasnja. Learn more about the meeting here.

2019 MN PBS Network Collaborators Forum

The Minnesota Positive Behavior Support Network Forum will bring together people working across sectors using implementation to support positive behavior supports across the lifespan. Learn more here.

CASCW spring conference announced

ITR partner Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare is hosting its 20th annual conference on April 30 and March 1 in Minneapolis. The title is “Understanding Substance Use and Interventions in Child Welfare.” Learn more here.