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July 2022 Newsletter

In this Issue...

May is Mental Health Month Contest Winners
2022 Annual Massachusetts DMH Center of Excellence Conference Recordings
New Resource: Culturally Competent Mental Health Care to LGBTQIA+ Youth
New Research Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Clubhouse Model
Seeking Providers/Administrators of Disability Employment Services for new Study
New Video Series for College Faculty
New Webinar Recordings: Juvenile Justice, Career & Technical Education Benefits for Young Adults with Mental Health Conditions, Improving Perinatal Care for those with Bipolar Disorder
Current Job Postings and what's happening in our other centers.

Mental Health Month Contest Winners

Our annual May is Mental Health Month Contest brought in some great entries aligned with the theme of Spring into Selfcare: Planting the Seeds for Growth. Here are the winning entries. Congratulations Tyler, Emily & Sandra!

2022 Annual Massachusetts DMH Centers of Excellence Conference Recordings

The 2022 Annual Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Centers of Excellence Conference was held on May 9, 2022. The title this year was "In This Together...But Not in the Same Boat: How we are supporting youth, young adults, and families facing mental health concerns".

The afternoon conference was hosted by the Massachusetts General Hospital Center of Excellence (COE) for Psychosocial and Systemic Research and UMass Chan Medical School Implementation Science & Practice Advances Research Center (iSPARC).

Featured Speakers included Kathryn Sabella, Ph.D. along with Kathy Sanders, MD at Mass DMH, and Daphne Holt, MD, Ph.D. & Anne Whitman, Ph.D with MGH.

View the Recordings & Presentations

Providing Culturally Competent Mental Health Care to LGBTQIA+ Youth & Young Adults

In honor of Pride Month last month, Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research, our center that focuses on improving mental health outcomes for youth and young adults, launched a new web page:"Providing Culturally Competent Mental Health Care to LGBTQIA+ Youth & Young Adults". This page features resources and tips for mental health providers to provide culturally competent care for LGBTQIA+ youth & young adults. It also features a blog post where a member of our team interviewed 5 LGBTQIA+ co-workers to share their experiences around mental health and employment.

Visit our LGBTQIA+ Resource Page

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

on the Clubhouse Model

The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to the traditional Clubhouse Model of Psychosocial Rehab ilitati on (Clubhouse). It forced many Clubhouses around the world to rapidly pivot from face-to-face services and support programs at the Clubhouse to hybrid or virtual services. The Clubhouse community quickly mobilized to establish new structures to maintain connections with Clubhouse members and provide them with essential supports. This brief describes adaptations that Clubhouses made during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also describe supports offered by Clubhouse International to inform their international network about innovative approaches and best practices for Clubhouses during the pandemic.

Read the Clubhouse Brief

Seeking Providers and Administrators

of Disability Employment Services

to Join Our Study

The Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (CeKTER) has a research project to identify the most effective methods of disseminating employment research to stakeholders. The results of our research project will be shared with NIDILRR employment grantees. CeKTER is seeking providers and administrators of disability employment services to join our study.

More Info & How to Enroll

We are Hiring!

We have a lot of great openings within our centers from Research roles and Postdoctoral fellowships to Administrative positions. Come work with us!

Current Job Openings

Search all UMass Chan Medical School current job openings here.

What's Happening in Our Centers

Turning Research Findings Into Implementation Activities - The "Knowledge to Action" Cycle:

The Knowledge to Action Cycle (KTA) breaks down the implementation process into 7 actionable phases starting with determining the knowledge-practice/policy gap through to sustaining the change. The one-hour conversation between Dr. Marianne Farkas of Boston University's Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Dr. Ian Graham was a Q&A about KTA and how to use the framework to ensure that research findings guide change in practice.

Watch The Knowledge to Action presentation here.

How to Share Research about Education and Employment with the Deaf Community

How to Share Research about Education and Employment with the Deaf Community This tip sheet focuses on best practices for sharing research findings with culturally Deaf individuals who primarily use ASL. Many of the strategies described in the tip sheet align with principles for universal accessibility and will, therefore, apply to a diverse range of hearing people and people with hearing loss.

Webinar Recording Posted Online! Promoting Positive Youth Development in Juvenile Justice Settings: What Do We Need to Know?

Webinar is now available online.

Promoting Positive Youth Development in Juvenile Justice Settings: What Do We Need to Know?

Presented by Gina Vincent, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Translational Law & Psychiatry Research, and Co-Director Law & Psychiatry at UMass SPARC. In this webinar, Dr. Vincent described the protective factors and strengths-based services thought to be most influential in reducing recidivism based on youths’ developmental stage and hypotheses about how these may be used in case planning.

Watch the Juvenile Justice Webinar

How College Faculty Can Better Support Students with Mental Health Conditions

Dr. Maryann Davis joined the Mary Christie Institute Podcast to Discuss College Faculty & Student Mental Health

Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research Director, Maryann Davis Ph.D., recently sat down with Marjorie Malpiede at the Mary Christie Institute to discuss the challenges students with mental illness face in their journey towards a college degree and how campus community members, particularly faculty, can better understand and support these students. Dr. Davis highlighted our center's video series, The College Faculty Guide to Academic Supports for College Students with Serious Mental Health Conditions, a series of short videos narrated by faculty and students that offer actionable advice on how campus stakeholders can better support students with mental health conditions.

New Webinar posted online!

Research shows that participation in Career Technical Education (CTE) coursework in high school provides opportunities to improve the otherwise poor employment and post-secondary outcomes of learners with emotional disturbance.

Our in latest webinar "Pathways to Self Sufficiency: Career & Technical Education For Youth With Emotional Disturbances" we describe opportunities for engaging learners in high school CTE to help them prepare for high wage, high-skill, in-demand employment opportunities, or participation in post-secondary education.

How Access Programs Can Improve Clinician Capacity to Manage Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a significant cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. Because bipolar disorder is hard to detect and treat, individuals with bipolar disorder often go without care.

The webinar How Access Programs Can Improve Clinician Capacity to Manage Bipolar Disorder, presented by Grace Masters, MD/PhD candidate discusses pertinent barriers to mental healthcare for perinatal individuals with bipolar disorder and explored the Perinatal Psychiatry Access Program model (using data from MCPAP for Moms) as a solution to bridge healthcare gaps.

Who We Are

As a MA Department of Mental Health Research Center of Excellence, we are here to help the MA DMH workforce with any Technical Assistance (TA) needs they may have by providing information based on research. iSPARC can provide expertise and information on a wide range of mental health-related topics. We provide Basic TA (e.g., tip sheets, brief phone consultation, etc.) at no cost and can provide more intensive TA (e.g., policy development, training, etc.) which requires approval of your area director or deputy commissioner, or for a fee.

The Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center is a part of the Department of Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School (formerly the University of Massachusetts Medical School).

iSPARC is a Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) Center of Excellence (COE) for Public Mental Health Services and Implementation Research that aims to improve the mental and behavioral health of all citizens of Massachusetts and beyond. iSPARC is committed to transferring knowledge and insights gained through rigorous research to improve the lives of people with lived mental health experience.

We conduct Participatory Action Research, an all-inclusive approach that ensures that every aspect of our research incorporates the voices of those with lived mental health experience.

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