Current Projects
Do More, Feel Better: Lay-Delivered Behavioral Activation in Senior Centers
Principal Investigator: Patrick Raue PhD, Jo Anne Sirey PhD, Amber Gum PhD
Research Team: Brittany Mosser, Dylan Fisher, Molly Woerner, Cristian Rivera Nales, Ryan Allred
Overview: In response to large numbers of senior center clients who suffer untreated depression and the dearth of geriatric mental health providers, the investigators have simplified Behavioral Activation to be delivered by lay volunteers ("Do More, Feel Better"; DMFB). The focus of Behavioral Activation is to guide clients to reengage in daily pleasant and rewarding activities, and reduce depressive symptoms. If the investigators can show that the lay delivery model has positive impact in comparison to MSW-delivered Behavioral Activation, the investigators will have identified an effective intervention that can be used by a large untapped workforce of older adult volunteers across the nation.
Publications: Raue, P. J., Hawrilenko, M., Corey, M., Lin, J., Chen, S., & Mosser, B. A.* (2022). "Do More, Feel Better": Pilot RCT of Lay-Delivered Behavioral Activation for Depressed Senior Center Clients. Behavior therapy, 53(3), 458–468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2021.11.005
Raue, P. J., Sirey, J. A., Dawson, A., Berman, J., & Bruce, M. L. (2019). Lay‐delivered behavioral activation for depressed senior center clients: Pilot RCT. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 34(11), 1715–1723. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5186
Do More, Feel Better in Spanish: Lay-Delivered Behavioral Activation in Senior Centers
Principal Investigator: Patrick Raue PhD, Jo Anne Sirey PhD, Amber Gum PhD
Research Team: Brittany Mosser, Cristian Rivera Nales, Dylan Fisher
Overview: This project is a supplement to our DMFB R01 project. Seeing the need to assist Spanish-speaking individuals with depression in community settings, we have extended the reach of the study by providing assistance for Spanish-speaking older adults. The investigators have simplified Behavioral Activation to be delivered by lay volunteers (“Do More, Feel Better”; DMFB). The focus of Behavioral Activation is to guide clients to reengage in daily pleasant and rewarding activities, and reduce depressive symptoms. If the investigators can show that the lay delivery model has positive impact in comparison to MSW-delivered Behavioral Activation, the investigators will have identified an effective intervention that can be used by a large untapped workforce of older adult volunteers across the nation - which may also prove to be helpful cross-culturally.
MHATS: Enhancing Engagement With Digital Mental Health Care
Principal Investigators: Pat Areán PhD, Michael Pullman PhD, Tim Althoff PhD
Research Team: Inna Wanyin Lin, Theresa Nguyen, Brittany Mosser, Isabell Griffith Fillipo,
Overview: This proposal is a partnership between Mental Health America (MHA), a nonprofit mental health advocacy and resource organization, Talkspace (TS), a for-profit, online digital psychotherapy organization, and the University of Washington's Schools of Medicine and Computer Science Engineering (UW). The purpose of this partnership is to create a digital mental health research platform leveraging MHA and TS's marketing platforms and consumer base to describe the characteristics of optimal engagement with digital mental health treatment, and to identify effective, personalized methods to enhance motivation to engage in digital mental health treatment in order to improve mental health outcomes. These aims will be met by identifying and following at least 100,000 MHA and TS consumers over the next 4 years, apply machine learning approaches to characterizing client engagement subtypes, and apply micro-randomized trials to study the effectiveness of motivational enhancement strategies and response to digital mental health treatment.
Publication: Zech, J. M., Johnson, M., Pullmann, M. D., Hull, T. D., Althoff, T., Munson, S. A., Fridling, N., Litvin, B., Wu, J., & Areán, P. A. (2023). An Integrative Engagement Model of Digital Psychotherapy: Exploratory Focus Group Findings. JMIR formative research, 7, e41428. https://doi.org/10.2196/41428
ADAPT: Message-Based Psychotherapy and Digital Treatment Sequences for Depression
Principal Investigators: Pat Areán PhD, Derrick Hull PhD
Research Team: Isabell Griffith Fillipo, Brittany Mosser, Molly Woerner
Overview: This partnership with Talkspace will determine how effective unlimited text-based psychotherapy for depression is when compared to once-a-week psychotherapy. This study will also determine what the best treatment options are for people who are not responding well to either unlimited texting or weekly psychotherapy. The results of this study will be a new product version of message-based care that can tailor psychotherapy intensity based on the needs of future consumers with depression.
Publication: Arean, P., Hull, D., Pullmann, M. D., & Heagerty, P. J. (2021). Protocol for a sequential, multiple assignment, randomised trial to test the effectiveness of message-based psychotherapy for depression compared with telepsychotherapy. BMJ Open, 11(11), e046958–e046958. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046958
Principal Investigators: Dr. Patricia Areán, Dr. Brittany Blanchard
Research Team: Brittany Mosser, Nichole Sams
UW L.I.F.E Measure
Overview: Can technology & algorithms drive people to live more fulfilling lives? Using UW ALACRITY Center’s DDBT Framework we used human-centered design to create a measurement tool to track how close a person is to living the life they want to live. Our goal is to help people living more fulfilling lives and achieve their intentions through understanding the life they want to live and how close they are to living it.
Searchlight
Principal Investigators: Dr. Kate Comtois & Dr. Pat Areán
Research Team: Brittany Mosser, Nichole Sams, CSPAR Lab
Overview: Can the way we search the internet every day create technology to transform suicide prevention? We search for the lyrics to our favorite songs. We look for funny cat videos on YouTube to brighten a dark day. We ask Google to help us understand what is happening halfway across the world. We search for ways to give back to our communities. Sometimes, we search for answers to questions that we don’t ask anyone else.
What if even a fraction of those searches could help ensure that people who are experiencing distress or thoughts of suicide are offered the help that they need, when they need it? Our team is investigating the ability to detect suicidality in time to intervene. We are also working with people with lived experience to explore the ethics and types of services they would want.