Three UAMS researchers have been awarded CBPR Pilot Program awards. The awardees are:
Deanne L. King, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine.
“Barriers to newborn hearing screening follow-up in AR using a community-based approach”
Babies born with hearing loss are at higher risk for speech, language, and developmental delays. Early detection and intervention can prevent or minimize these delays. We have national guidelines that outline Early Hearing Detection and Intervention. Arkansas started screening all newborns in 1999 and we do very well (98-99%) getting babies the first screening, however, only about half of the babies who do not pass their first screen get the recommended follow-up and testing. The goals of this study are to evaluate parents’ perceived/encountered barriers to follow-up diagnostic testing after the failed newborn screening, identify any particular subgroups or provider/hospital level factors that have a higher loss to follow-up rate by collaborating with ADH’S IHP, identify the impact of access to care on loss to follow-up/delayed diagnosis using ADH IHP data, and evaluate all the current factors that lead to poor loss to follow-up rate and develop strategies to mitigate the most common barriers.
Eva Woodward, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry,
College of Medicine, Clinical Psychologist, Primary Care Behavioral
Health, CAVHS
“Adapting safety planning intervention for prevention of suicide in veterans”
Veteran suicide is a serious problem that can be prevented. Veteran suicide rates have increased by 48% in rural areas of the United States, including Arkansas. Plus, suicide rates are higher among veterans living in rural areas versus cities—this difference is also known as a “disparity.” The suicide disparity between rural and urban veterans means the difference exists because of social hardships veterans face in rural areas, such as more poverty and fewer job opportunities. Other challenges are long distances to travel for care, not good internet to use telehealth (connecting with a doctor through video), and negative judgment about being depressed or thinking about suicide. The goals of this study are to collaborate with a Steering Committee to decide which parts of Safety Planning can be kept and what can be changed, identify the barriers and strengths of putting the plan into action, adapt Safety Planning Intervention activities and materials, educate community members in veterans living in rural Arkansas, and prepare a future project to activate the plan.
Melissa Zielinski, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine
“Preventing Suicide in Jails: Community-Developed Strategies to Support an Educational Intervention”
Suicide is common in the United States. It is one of the top 10 causes of death nationally. But the risk of dying by suicide is not the same for all people and places. The risk is complicated and related to many factors, so focusing on people and places that have the highest risk for suicide is an important strategy to prevent suicide deaths. Jails are one of the places where people are at a higher risk of dying by suicide. Suicide is the leading cause of death in jail. In fact, nearly one-third of all jail deaths are suicides. The large number of people who are arrested in the U.S. (more than 10 million each year, or about 28,000 per day), and how common suicides are, make jails an important place to focus suicide prevention education efforts on. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) realized this need. As part of their Project 2025, they identified correction systems as one of four priority areas for suicide prevention. Locally, the Arkansas Chapter of AFSP formed a Suicide Prevention in Corrections Committee (SPCC) in 2019. The goal of the SPCC was to bring together stakeholders with many different perspectives to discuss and promote suicide prevention in corrections settings. Several of the SPCC’s members help with suicide prevention education in jails directly. The purpose of our study is to build from the SPCC’s initial work and identify and test strategies to implement suicide prevention education in county jails. Research has shown that suicide prevention programs can reduce suicide deaths and attempts, but less is known about how to help jails implement these kinds of programs. We want to learn how to help jails do this in this study.