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May 2025 Newsletter

In this Issue...

Annual DMH Research Centers of Excellence Conference
Upcoming Webinar: ACCS Coaching A Strengths-Based Approach
Upcoming Webinar: Youth & YA with Series Mental Health Conditions - Reflections of 30 Years Parts 1 & 2
May is Mental Health Month
Employment Outcomes among People with Disabilities: Brief Series from CeKTER
New Research: Youth Protective Factors Study from Law & Psychiatry

2025 Annual Massachusetts DMH Research COE Conference

Our Annual Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) Research Centers of Excellence Virtual Conference is on Thursday, May 29th, from 12:30 to 4:30 PM EDT, hosted by iSPARC and the Center of Excellence (COE) for Psychosocial and Systemic Research at Mass General Brigham.

This year's theme is "Promoting Youth Mental and Behavioral Health: Understanding and Addressing Risk and Protective Factors to Improve Youth Well-Being and Outcomes".

This year's feature speakers include Gina Vincent, Ph.D., Cheryl Y. S. Foo, Ph.D., Daphne J. Holt, MD , Ph.D., Michelle G. Mullen, Ph.D., and Vanessa Iroegbulem, along with opening remarks from Brooke Doyle, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH).

Visit our website for the full agenda.

CMEs for Physicians and CEUs for Psychology, RN, Social Work, OT, and LMHC will be available.

Upcoming Webinars

counselor and patient sitting in an office chatting

Adult Community Clinical Services (ACCS) Coaching: A Strength-Based Approach

May 8, 2025 - 12-1 PM EDT

Coaching webinar participants will be able to:

Learn about effective coaching techniques to better support persons with lived experience
Describe strategies for integrating coaching into their organization to address issues and foster growth
Provide an overview of established coaching models and frameworks relevant to mental health service providers
Understand how to utilize the GROW Coaching Framework in ACCS Settings, and
Practice using tools and methods to measure the success and impact of coaching such as Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS)

group of young adults huddled in a group smiling

Youth & Young Adults with Serious Mental Health Conditions - Reflections of 30 Years: Parts 1 & 2

Part 1: May 12, 2025

Part 2: June 2, 2025

From 12-1:30 PM EDT

Our presenters, Amanda Baczko, MPH; Brianne “Brie” Masselli, MA; Gwendolyn White, MSW; Nancy Koroloff, PhD, and Maryann Davis, PhD, will discuss developments in services, policies, and research from 1995-2025.

The webinars will highlight the interrelationships of research, policy, and practices from the initial recognition of the need to both understand the strengths, needs, and circumstances of this population and to provide services that are tailored to them. As well as list the major milestones that have been achieved since the field’s infancy, with an eye towards lessons learned and future implications.

Part 1 on May 12th will trace the development of policies, federal programs, and local innovative service delivery that addressed the needs of youth and young adults living with serious mental health conditions.

Part 2 on June 2nd will focus on research developments.

May is Mental Health Month

Each year, iSPARC partners with members of our Community Advisory Boards to recognize May is Mental Health Month. This year, members of the weSPARC Insight Advisory Board chose the theme of movement and contributed their thoughts, feelings, and experiences on movement and its relationship with mental health.

Visit our website the see how movement can take many forms.

Employment Outcomes among People with Disabilities: Brief Series from CeKTER

collage of the printed briefs on a table

These briefs are part of a series based on research led by Dr. Zlatka Russinova and her team at CeKTER.

They looked at studies published between 2000 and 2020 about employment for people with disabilities. This work was funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

The team only included studies that focused specifically on people with disabilities—they left out any that compared them to people without disabilities.

They reviewed over 100 studies, but the findings were very different from one another. The studies used many different methods and asked different questions, so it’s hard to come to one clear conclusion. There are many ways to group and understand these different results.

View and Read the Briefs at CeKTER.org

New Research: Youth Protective Factors Study from Law & Psychiatry

The latest brief from the Youth Protective Factors Study—a partnership between the CSG Justice Center, iSPARC, and UC Berkeley’s Risk-Resilience Lab—examines how protective factors and strength-based services impact long-term youth reoffending, especially for serious offenses.

Key findings reveal which protective factors help prevent reoffending and how jurisdictions can use this data to improve case planning, supervision, and services.

Read the second brief to explore these insights and their implications for juvenile justice policy and practice.

Read the Second Brief

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 and Behavioral Sciences at UMass Chan 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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