Key Dates

Related Announcements

PAR-21-129: Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (Collaborative R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PAR-21-130: Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PAR-21-131: Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

PAR-21-316: Innovative Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)

PAR-19-274: Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-19-275: Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-22-082: Innovative Pilot Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R34 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-20-185: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-20-195: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PA-20-183: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-20-194: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)

PAR-20-273: New Models of Integrated HIV/AIDS, Addiction, and Primary Care Services (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-21-180: Pilot Health Services and Economic Research on the Treatment of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use Disorders (R34 - Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-20-274: New Models of Integrated HIV/AIDS, Addiction, and Primary Care Services (R34 - Clinical Trial Optional)

Issued by

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Purpose

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) highlights interest in mental health services and implementation science research to support the adoption and sustainability of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in community-based settings that deliver care to people with mental illness. These settings could include, but are not limited to, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic-Expansion (CCBHC-E) grant program.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recognize that effective research-practice partnerships are crucial for identifying salient research questions and developing and testing realistic, adoptable, scalable, and sustainable implementation strategies that promote continuously improving mental and behavioral health care. To be competitive, researchers must partner with healthcare delivery organizations and/or organizations charged to deliver implementation support to healthcare delivery organizations. Examples of healthcare delivery organizations include current CCBHC-E awardees (https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/2021/ccbhc-awards) and organizations applying for CCBHC-E grant funding (e.g.,funding through SM-22-002: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) – Planning, Development, and Implementation Grants (CCBHC–PDI) and SM-22-012: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) – Improvement and Advancement Grants (CCBHC–IA), with additional information here. An example of an organization charged to deliver implementation support includes the SAMHSA-funded Technical Assistance (TA) Center.

Background

CCBHCs are funded to increase access to and improve the quality of community mental and substance use disorder treatment services. CCBHCs provide person- and family-centered integrated services and access to 24/7 crisis intervention services for all individuals across the lifespan in need of behavioral health services in the geographic catchment area served by the CCBHC. These populations include individuals with serious mental illness (SMI); substance use disorders (SUD), including opioid use disorder; children and youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED); individuals with co-occurring mental illness and substance disorders (COD); and people experiencing a mental health or substance use related crisis. SAMHSA expects that this program will improve behavioral health care for individuals across the lifespan by supporting providers to operate in accordance with the Federal CCBHC criteria and increasing access to and availability of high-quality services that are responsive to the needs of the community; using evidence-based practices that meet the needs of individuals served; and working to continually measure and improve the quality of services. SAMHSA currently funds 402 CCBHC-E grants across the country. A listing of currently funded CCHBC grant recipients is available here https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/2021/ccbhc-awards.

In 2022, SAMHSA issued two funding announcements to expand the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic-Expansion program and fund up to 370 additional CCBHC-E awardees nationwide: SM-22-002: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) – Planning, Development, and Implementation Grants (CCBHC–PDI) and SM-22-012: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) – Improvement and Advancement Grants (CCBHC–IA).

Awardees from the SAMHSA funding announcement will receive $1 million per year for 4 years to establish new clinical programs under the CCBHC model.

CCBHC-E awardees can dedicate a portion of their funding to engage in activities related to best practice implementation. Here, CCBHC-E awardees will be expected to engage with the SAMHSA-funded TA center and propose activities that would assist with the implementation of and adherence to appropriate evidence-based treatments and practices for individuals with complex behavioral and physical health needs. Additional details can be found here.

This NOSI invites mental health and substance use services researchers to collaborate with CCBHC-E awardees, TA-center awardees, and/or other community-based centers delivering mental or physical health or substance use-related services to propose research studies that will advance understanding of best practices in clinical program implementation. Research grant applications can be submitted through any of the NIMH or NIDA Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) listed below.

NIMH, NIDA, and SAMHSA recognize the potential for effective research practice partnerships to advance care delivery for people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders who are being treated in community health centers like CCBHCs. This NOSI encourages research practice partnerships and the development of meritorious research projects that can a) answer important research questions that have broad relevance beyond the participating clinics and b) generate knowledge that can ultimately be used to improve care for people with mental illness, including SMI, SED, substance use disorders, and other co-occurring conditions.

Examples of high priority projects include, but are not limited to the following:

• Projects that test/compare sustainable staff training and supervision approaches (e.g., technology-assisted training, expert telephone consultation) that can be used to train providers to initial competence, to monitor intervention quality, and to promote sustained fidelity in the delivery of research-supported services, across a range of clinical modalities, including telehealth, for people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders.

• Projects that use Type 3 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial designs to test the effectiveness of implementation strategies and measure clinical outcomes for prevention, treatment, or services interventions with strong extant evidence of effectiveness (e.g., interventions recommended in a clinical practice guideline).

• Projects that use Type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial designs to simultaneously test the effectiveness of (a) implementation strategies and (b) promising prevention, treatment, or services interventions with some empirical support, but lacking sufficient evidence for inclusion in clinical practice guidelines.

• Projects focused on refining and testing scalable research-supported preventive and therapeutic intervention approaches that incorporate features explicitly designed to prevent threats to implementation fidelity, including approaches that incorporated consumer-facing technology (e.g., digitally assisted, self-administered interventions) and provider-facing technology (e.g., technology to support providers in the delivery of core content of EBPs).

• Projects focused on refining and testing the utility of measurement-based care tools (e.g., paper-pencil questionnaires, mobile health technology, telephone monitoring), that can be used to assist providers and empower patients to track their progress.

• Projects that optimize interventions and implementation approaches by testing implementation strategies and their alignment with school programs, medical facilities (e.g., primary care, emergency departments), the criminal justice system and/or employment settings for people with mental illness and other co-occurring conditions.

• Projects that seek to streamline evidence-based service delivery interventions for people with mental illness and other medical or behavioral health needs (e.g., opioid use disorder) to improve adoption, scalability, affordability, and sustainability.

• Projects that seek to adapt established EBPs to improve care for populations served by CCBHCs, including challenges related to social determinants of health (e.g., housing or food insecurities or involvement with the criminal justice or child welfare systems). Consistent with the NIMH experimental therapeutics paradigm (An Experimental Therapeutic Approach to Psychosocial Interventions), projects that seek to adapt established EBPs should only be undertaken if there is (a) an empirical rationale for the adaptation, (b) a clear hypothesis and plan to address the mechanism by which the adapted EBP will enhance outcomes, and (c) evidence to suggest that the adapted intervention will result in a substantial improvement outcomes.

• Studies that test strategies that can be used to reduce health disparities and advance equity in mental health interventions, services, and outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups, individuals limited by language or cultural barriers, sexual and gender minorities, individuals living in rural areas, socioeconomically disadvantaged persons and other underserved groups.

• Projects that seek to understand circumstances and test strategies to stop or reduce (i.e., “de-implement”) the use of interventions that are ineffective, unproven, low-value, or harmful in efforts to demonstrably free up resources and then implement a high-value EBP.

IC Specific Application and Submission Information:

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) accepts applications to the following or their subsequent reissued equivalents:

Note: for clinical trial research, applicants are expected to follow NIMH’s experimental therapeutics approach to intervention development and testing as referenced here: NIMH »Support for Clinical Trials at NIMH (nih.gov).

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) accepts applications to the following or their subsequent reissued equivalents:

Application and Submission Information

This notice applies to due dates on or after May 7, 2022 and subsequent receipt dates through May 8, 2025. 

Applications for this initiative must be submitted using one of the aforementioned funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcement through the expiration date of this notice.

• PAR-21-129: Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (Collaborative R01 Clinical Trial Required)
• PAR-21-130: Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required)
• PAR-21-131: Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Required)
• PAR-21-316: Innovative Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
• PAR-22-082: Innovative Pilot Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R34 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PAR-19-274: Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-19-275: Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
• PA-20-185: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-195: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
• PA-20-183: NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required)
• PA-20-194: NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Program (Parent R21 Clinical Trial Required)
• PAR-20-273: New Models of Integrated HIV/AIDS, Addiction, and Primary Care Services (R01 Clinical Trial Required)
• PA-21-180: Pilot Health Services and Economic Research on the Treatment of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use Disorders (R34 - Clinical Trial Optional)
• PAR-20-274: New Models of Integrated HIV/AIDS, Addiction, and Primary Care Services (R34 - Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the funding opportunity announcement used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:

• For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-MH-22-170” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.

Inquiries

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Michael C. Freed, Ph.D., EMT
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-443-3747
Email: michael.freed@nih.gov

Tisha R. A. Wiley, Ph.D.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Telephone: 301-594-4381
Email: tisha.wiley@nih.gov