February 2, 2024
- January 6, 2023 - Innovative Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed) See NOFO PAR-23-095
- January 13, 2023 - Innovative Pilot Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R34 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) See NOFO PAR-23-105
- March 2, 2021 - Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required) See NOFO PAR-21-130
- March 2, 2021 - Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Required) See NOFO PAR-21-131
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) highlights research priorities on the impact of social and economic policy interventions that address social determinants of health (SDOH) on improvements in access and engagement with mental health treatment, mental health functioning, and quality of life for people with serious mental illnesses, with special attention to understanding the underlying mediators/change mechanisms of those policies on outcomes.
Background
NIH has defined SDOH as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, learn, work, play, live, and age, and the wider set of structural factors shaping the conditions of daily life”. While biological factors play an important role in mental illness and its clinical course, SDOH have also been established as crucial factors in people’s mental health. These are structural factors, including social, economic, and legal forces, systems, and policies that determine opportunities and access to high quality jobs, education, housing, transportation, built environment, information and communication infrastructure, food, and health care, the social environment, and other conditions of daily life (https://www.ninr.nih.gov/researchandfunding/nih-sdohrcc).
Compared to the general population, people with serious mental illnesses have high rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, such as low income, housing and food insecurity, and unemployment. The ways in which mental health may influence socioeconomic status have been debated: for example, the social causation theory states that experiencing economic hardship causes people to develop mental health conditions, while the social selection theory states that having mental health conditions can result in people drifting to a lower socioeconomic status. Evidence for both theories have been identified in scientific literature. However, it remains unknown the extent to which helping people improve social determinants of health can help to improve mental health outcomes.
Goal
Growing literature shows that interventions that include addressing these SDOH may help people with serious mental illnesses improve functioning and quality of life. Social and economic interventions are employed within communities and service settings to help address social determinants of health that may have an impact on mental health functioning. These may involve modifying structural factors (e.g., supporting affordable housing or food) or more individual-focused solutions (e.g., providing individuals with career training or a living wage). SDOH-relevant policy interventions may include laws, regulations, procedures or other interventions enacted by national and subnational (e.g. state, territory or local) governments or other interested party such as health care organizations, payers, non-governmental organizations or faith-based institutions. Example policies that have been enacted to address social determinants of health, include but are not limited to:
- Income support, cash transfer and guaranteed basic income policies
- Tax credits to reduce tax burden
- Housing and food assistance programs
- Policies and programs to support education, employment and labor support
- Policies and programs to influence environmental determinants of health
These are examples of policies aimed at addressing social determinants of health, which have been hypothesized to improve mental health outcomes. While other evaluations of these interventions may assess their impact on socioeconomic status, NIMH seeks to understand the impact of such interventions on mental health outcomes. Interventions such as these have the potential to improve our understanding of how changes in socioeconomic status may impact mental health. As such interventions may not been fully tested to examine the impact on mental health outcomes, effects of such actions on mental health functioning is unclear, as are the policy levers and mechanisms through which they may operate. Research is needed to determine the conditions under which an intervention would have meaningful and measurable impacts on key outcomes of interest.
Projects should be consistent with the NIMH Strategic Plan. Goal 4 highlights the need for stakeholder input to improve the reach and sustainability of evidence-based interventions.
Projects should be consistent with the NIH’s Notice Clarifying NIH Priorities for Health Economics Research (NOT-OD-16-025).
Application and Submission Information
This notice applies to due dates on or after June 5, 2024, and subsequent receipt dates through January 9, 2026.
- January 6, 2023 - Innovative Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed) See NOFO PAR-23-095
- January 13, 2023 - Innovative Pilot Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials (R34 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) See NOFO PAR-23-105
- March 2, 2021 - Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required) See NOFO PAR-21-130
- March 2, 2021 - Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Required) See NOFO PAR-21-131
All instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide and the notice of funding opportunity used for submission must be followed, with the following additions:
- For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-MH-24-340” (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.
Please direct all inquiries to the Scientific/Research, Peer Review, and Financial/Grants Management contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity.
Scientific/Research Contact(s)
Jennifer Humensky, PhD
National Institute of Mental Health/Division of Services and Intervention Research
Telephone: 301-480-1265
Email: Jennifer.Humensky@nih.gov
and Human Services (HHS)
