MIRECC / CoE

Highlights from Our Anchor Sites

Our affiliates in Houston, Little Rock, New Orleans, and VISN 17 work hard to promote mental health education, research, and treatment locally and nationally. Here are some highlights of their accomplishments over the past three months.

SC MIRECC Rural Women Veterans Collaborative

The SC MIRECC Rural Women Veterans Collaborative is a group of VA researchers and clinicians serving VISN 16 who are dedicated to advancing research on the health and wellbeing of rural women Veterans. Through scientific collaboration, Veteran engagement, and education, the Collaborative aims to improve rural women Veterans’ mental health, wellness, and equitable healthcare delivery. Current accomplishments of the collaborative include:

Grants:

• Dr. Mary Shapiro is preparing an HSR&D Career Development Award (CDA)-2 resubmission aimed at developing and evaluating a pregnancy- and trauma-informed intervention for pregnant Veterans with a history of trauma exposure.
• Dr. Alexandra (Ali) Caloudas is leading a SC MIRECC pilot study to adapt an intervention for low sexual desire in civilian women for use with Women Veterans.
• Deleene Menefee (Site PI), Ellen Teng (Site Co-PI), and Julianna Hogan (Site Co-PI) submitted a Department of Defense grant to test the hypothesis that the effectiveness of evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD will be optimized by first treating emotion dysregulation prior to targeting PTSD symptoms in Women Veterans (PI: Maria Kajankova).

Publications:

• Dr. Jan Lindsay, Dr. Alexandra (Ali) Caloudas, Dr. Julianna Hogan, Dr. Anthony Ecker, Dr. Stephanie Day, Giselle Day, Dr. Samantha Connolly, Dr. Hilary Touchett, Dr. Kendra Weaver, and Dr. Amber Amspoker published a paper on the use of video-to-home telehealth among Women Veterans.
• Dr. Mary Shapiro published a paper on pain and posttraumatic stress in Women Veterans with a history of MST.
• Drs. Alexandra (Ali) Caloudas, Derrecka Boykin, Julianna Hogan, and Jan Lindsay published a paper on the prevalence of low sexual desire among Women Veterans.

For more information or to connect with the Collaborative, please reach out to Alexandra.Caloudas@va.gov.

Dr. Mark Kunik Selected as 2023 Chair of the Houston Walk to End Alzheimer’s

Dr. Kunik and his team, the Baylor Memory Walkers, have been walking for over 10 years, and have grown the Baylor College of Medicine presence in Houston to 25 walk teams consisting of nearly 300 walkers. Dr. Kunik said, “I am looking forward to leading as the Houston Walk Chair, and to reaching lofty goals in raising awareness and fundraising. The Houston Community will rally to have our best Walk yet. Persons with dementia and their caregivers need our help more than ever!”

Career Development Award Application Submissions

Congratulations to Drs. Darius Dawson, Brandon Griffin, Mary Shapiro, Rajinder (Sonia) Singh, Hilary Touchett, and Marcela (Marci) Weber on submitting CDA applications. Their applications aim to research:

• Dr. Dawson: Evaluate barriers and facilitators that impact delivery of evidence-based tobacco cessation treatment in VISN 16 and develop and test a health communication intervention to increase initiation of tobacco cessation treatment for African American and Hispanic Veterans.
• Dr. Griffin: Adapting self-directed forgiveness intervention for military-related moral injury.
• Dr. Shapiro: Adapt and test a trauma-informed treatment for pregnant Veterans at-risk for poor perinatal outcomes.
• Dr. Singh: Enhancing policy implementation to improve health equity for transgender and gender diverse Veterans.
• Dr. Touchett: Explore the feasibility and acceptability of a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)-tailored, evidence-based mindfulness group when delivered through virtual reality.
• Dr. Weber: Development of a strengths- and values- based patient-centered treatment planning intervention for increased Veteran engagement and retention in trauma-focused evidence-based psychotherapies.

Last updated: July 25, 2023