Research Training in Functional Disability Interventions

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine requests the first renewal of a 5 year post-doctoral research training grant for intervention and services research in treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention of severe mental disorders. This grant provides support for a total of 2 physicians and 2 Ph.D. psychologists per year. Post-doctoral trainees spend two to three years at Yale to obtain clinical and research training while being mentored by faculty investigators whose interests include neuroscience, cognitive and vocational rehabilitation, early intervention, epidemiology and health services research. Our multi-disciplinary program enables trainees to engage in research from trials on promising new approaches to effectiveness studies in health systems. The main purpose of this proposal is to provide post-doctoral trainees the opportunity to devote full-time effort to learning the skills needed to become independent researchers and clinician scientists. Prospective trainees identify a faculty mentor and develop a proposed training plan as part of the application procedure. During the training program, trainees participate in seminars and courses on health services research, neuroscience, biostatistics, research design, translational research and responsible conduct of scientific research. They participate in a mentored rotation on the IRB. Direct involvement in community settings, stimulation of cutting-edge neuroscience, exposure to systems issues at a state, national, and international level, and intensive training in research methods provide a rich experience that encourages trainees to generate original research. Projects have included such topics as early detection of psychosis, the recovery process, changing patterns of child psychiatric services, mental health services for the deaf and hearing impaired, cognitive remediation in substance abuse treatment, and fMRI assessment of cognitive retraining in schizophrenia. Under faculty mentors, trainees gain experience in clinical research, from initial conceptualization and design, through implementation, data analysis and manuscript preparation. Four fellows have completed their training and four are currently in training. Graduates have continued their independent research as faculty at leading medical centers.