HSR&D Research Career Scientist Award

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Dr. Chinman is an accomplished researcher who has made pioneering theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to implementation science and to the deployment of VA Peer Specialists—Veterans with serious mental illness, or SMI, who are trained and then employed by VA to help other Veterans with SMI (~1200 are employed VA-wide). Funded by VA HSR&D, RR&D, and QUERI, his current VA portfolio focuses on teaching Veterans with SMI cognitive and social skills and coaching Veterans with SMI who are obese to lose weight—both featuring Peer Specialists as the primary interventionist. Dr. Chinman is also leading an effort to develop and pilot a Peer Specialist-based suicide prevention program. In addition to Peer Specialists, Dr. Chinman has been centrally involved in the development of implementation science since its inception, designing and working on implementation trials in mental health, primary care, and after school settings. In these trials, he has applied, evaluated, and refined Getting To Outcomes® (GTO®), a robust implementation strategy with demonstrated effectiveness, and developed multiple frameworks to aid implementation researchers. Dr. Chinman provides extensive mentoring at multiple levels, locally in Pittsburgh and nationally, on Peer Specialist and implementation research—for example helping seven junior investigators secure HSR&D CDAs. Lastly, Dr. Chinman has a track record of extensive collaborations with other investigators and VA operations partners. For example, Dr. Chinman has been assisting the VA's National Director of Peer Support since the inception of that position, to better understand Peer Specialist contributions and overcome implementation barriers. The goal for this Research Career Scientist (RCS) application is to provide support for an established investigator to expand his current lines of research on Peer Specialists and to advance rigorous methods that benefit implementation science. The outcome of this RCS proposal would be to improve Veterans' with SMI access to care and VHA's capacity to deliver evidence based mental health practices through mentoring, leadership, research, and implementation. The proposed award would help Dr. Chinman expand the breadth and depth of his portfolio of theoretical and applied research on Peer Specialists (e.g., clarifying theoretical mechanisms), further develop his implementation science contributions (including new tools and their dissemination) and increase his mentoring in peer support and implementation science locally and VA-wide.