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.

Houston

Ms. Sarah Pollard Achieves 25 Years of VA Service

Congratulations to Ms. Pollard for achieving 25 years of service at VA. Ms. Pollard supports our Houston anchor site with purchasing and other budget related tasks. We appreciate and thank her for her service.

Dr. Jeffrey Cully Receives Research Award

Congratulations to Dr. Cully for receiving the Psychology Division of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine Excellence in Research Award. The award recognizes his outstanding work and dedication to the field.

Affiliates Receive Intent to Fund Notices

Dr. Alexandra (Ali) Caloudas received an intent to fund notice for her Office of Rural Health Career Development Award (CDA), “Leveraging Virtual Care and Clinical Partnerships to Engage Rural Veterans in VA Mental Health Care,” ($375,424). Dr. Caloudas was also named the new Houston Health Professions Education Evaluation and Research (HPEER) Fellowship Director.

Dr. Kathryn Kanzler received an intent to fund notice for her Department of Defense pilot “Supporting Acceptance for Living with Uncomfortable Thoughts and Experiences in Chronic Pain,” ($370,662)

Dr. Hilary Touchett received an intent to fund notice for her Rehabilitation Research and Development CDA-1, “Exploring virtual reality mindfulness training for Veterans with SCI and chronic pain,” ($358,079). Dr. Touchett also received an Immergo Labs Inc. subcontract, “SBIR Phase II: An immersive Virtual Reality Platform for Remote Physical Therapy and Monitoring,” ($113,491).

MyBrief CBT Team Receives Award

Congratulations to the MyBrief CBT Team for receiving the Exceptional Teamwork award during Research Week (Darrell Zeno, Andy Robinson, Raquel Gonzalez, Nicte Donis, Dr. Joe Mignogna, Dr. Shubhada Sansgiry, Dr. Terri Fletcher, Dr. Natalie Hundt, Dr. Jeff Cully)

Dr. Darius Dawson Receives ADAA Emerging Leader Award

Congratulations to Dr. Darius Dawson for being selected as an Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA) 2024 Emerging Leader awardee. This award honors early career professional members for outstanding service and commitment to advancing ADAA’s professional and/or public mission. Dr. Dawson was recognized earlier this month at the ADAA 2024 in-person conference in Boston.

Houston Recently Published First or Senior Author Manuscripts

• Abdualla, B. A., Bryan, J. L., & Asghar-Ali, A. A. (2024). The impact of COVID-19 in reshaping graduate medical education: Harnessing hybrid learning and virtual training. Cureus, 16(3).
• Boykin, D. M., Smith, T. L., Rakel, B., Rodrigues, M., Embree, J., Woods, K., Chaison, A. D., & Dindo L. (2024). Demystifying the virtualization process: A call for standard reporting of virtual modifications to evidence-based psychotherapies, using the FRAME model. Translational Behavioral Medicine. Advance online publication.
• Bryan, J. L., Wittkower, D., Walker, L., Ozanian, A., Fisher, M., & Asghar-Ali, A. A. (2024). Veterans Administration Readjustment Counseling Service counselor’s training needs: Results of a national needs assessment. Cognitive Psychotherapy, 38(2), 157-168.
• Caloudas, A. B., Haltom, T. M., Goltz, H. H., Badr, H. J., & Taylor, J. M. (2024). Patient-Centered development of a bladder cancer survivorship care plan. Supportive Care in Cancer, 32(6), 397.
• Ecker, H. A., Shivaji, S., Plasencia, M., Kauth, M. R., Hundt, N. E., Fletcher, T. L., Sansgiry, S., & Cully, J. A. (2024). The role of symptom reduction in improving health-related quality of life through brief cognitive behavioral therapy. Psychotherapy Research, 1-9.
• Hundt, N. E., Plasencia, M., Amspoker, A. B., Yusuf, Z., Walder, A., Nagamoto, H., Kim, B., Tsao, C. G., & Smith, T. L. (2024). Evaluation of the implementation of the FLOW program for increasing access to mental health care. Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, 51(3), 325-337.
• Kanzler, K. E., Kunik, M. E., & Aycock, C. A. (2024). Increasing access to behavioral health care: Examples of task shifting in two U.S. government health care systems. Families, Systems and Health. Advance online publication.
• Khasnavis, S. &, Asghar-Ali, A. A. (2024). A self-guided curriculum for psychiatry residents to learn bedside cognitive evaluations. Academic Psychiatry. Advance online publication.
• Shanahan, M. L., & Naik, A. D. (2024). Using health values to inform collaborative goal-setting for chronic care of older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 72(7), 1955-1958.
• Shanahan, M. L., Rand, K. L., Galloway, A., & Matthias, M. S. (2024). Treatment goals and preferences of Black Veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Journal of Pain, 25(7), 104487.

Little Rock

Article by Dr. Brandon Griffin Featured in ISTSS Trauma Blog

Dr. Griffin and his coauthors were featured by the ISTSS Trauma Blog for their article on the Moral Injury and Distress Scale (MIDS) and how it can be used to identify individuals with moral injury. Visit https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38655683/ to read the original article about this important work.

Affiliates Submit Grant Applications

Congratulations to affiliates in Little Rock for submitting grants in June. Those who submitted grants included Drs. Robert Bossarte, Michael Cucciare, Kathleen (Katy) Grubbs, Corey Hayes, Sara Landes, Monica Matthieu, and Marcela (Marci) Weber. Funding agencies included VA Health Services Research and QUERI.

Last updated: July 23, 2024