Key Dates

Related Announcements

NOT-MH-21-035 - Request for Information: Guidance on Current Research on the Prevention of Black Youth Suicide

RFA-MH-18-707 Confirmatory Efficacy Clinical Trials of Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Mental Disorders (R01- Clinical Trial Required)

RFA-MH-18-706 Pilot Effectiveness Trials for Treatment, Preventive and Services Interventions (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

RFA-MH-18-700 Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (Collaborative R01 Clinical Trial Required)

RFA-MH-18-701 Clinical Trials to Test the Effectiveness of Treatment, Preventive, and Services Interventions (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

RFA-MH-20-506 Practice-Based Research for Implementing Scalable Evidence-Based Prevention Interventions in Primary Care Settings (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

RFA-MH-20-505 Practice-Based Research for Implementing Scalable Evidence-Based Prevention Interventions in Primary Care Settings (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

PAR-19-189 Pilot Services Research Grants Not Involving Clinical Trials (R34 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

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

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

PAR-18-929 High-Priority Areas for Research Leveraging EHR and Large-Scale Data (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PAR-18-479 Detecting and Preventing Suicide Behavior, Ideation and Self-Harm in Youth in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System (R01 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-20-184- NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)

PA-18-350 NIMH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

PAR-18-228 Pilot Studies to Detect and Prevent Suicide Behavior, Ideation and Self-Harm in Youth in Contact with the Juvenile Justice System (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

PA-17-264 - Innovative Mental Health Services Research Not Involving Clinical Trials(R01)

PAR-19-384 - Research on Biopsychosocial Factors of Social Connectedness and Isolation on Health, Wellbeing, Illness, and Recovery (R01 Basic Experimental Studies with Humans Required)

PAR-19-373 - Research on Biopsychosocial Factors of Social Connectedness and Isolation on Health, Wellbeing, Illness, and Recovery (R01 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)

RFA MH-20-400 Effectiveness of Implementing Sustainable Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices in Low-Resource Settings to Achieve Mental Health Equity for Traditionally Underserved Populations (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

RFA-MH-20-401 Implementing and Sustaining Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices in Low-Resource Settings to Achieve Equity in Outcomes (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

Issued by

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)

All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers.

Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)

Purpose

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to encourage research focused on Black child and adolescent suicide. Recent data suggest that Black youth, especially those under age 13, appear to be at higher than average risk for suicide and suicide-related behaviors.

Background

Over the past several years, there has been a significant increase in the rate of suicide and suicide ideation and behaviors (SIB) among Black youth. From 2001 to 2015, an analysis found that Black youth under 13 were twice as likely to die by suicide compared to their White peers, and the suicide death rate among Black youth was found to be increasing faster than any other racial/ethnic group. In response to these trends, the Congressional Black Caucus convened an emergency Taskforce in 2019 to examine Black youth suicide and mental health. In December 2019, the Taskforce released its report, Ring the Alarm, The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America, which summarized key epidemiological and clinical findings about Black youth suicide, and provided several research, practice, and policy recommendations for addressing the crisis. Included in the research recommendations were suggestions for more research related to Black youth suicide and mental health particularly related to: the identification of risk and protective factors for suicidal behaviors among Black and Black LGBTQ+ youth, research on mental health utilization and engagement in treatment for depression and suicide risk detection, and evidence-based interventions that are developmentally and culturally and linguistically relevant for Black children and adolescents.

Within this broad category of topics, each participating Institute has a specialized focus of interest as outlined below:

NIMH Research Priorities

NIMH encourages research that addresses Institute priorities and is aligned with these recommended areas. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to studies mentioned below:

Epidemiology, Etiology, Trajectories

• Studies that employ the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework to investigate how racial and economic disparities confer risk (e.g., mediating changes in RDoC constructs, such as cognitive control, approach motivation, rumination, affiliation and attachment, potential threat, sleep and circadian rhythm regulation, frustrative non-reward, and perception and understanding of self, at multiple units of analysis, such as physiology, circuits, behavior, and self-report).
• Research that seeks to identify individual, family, and community-level risk and protective factors, especially in terms of RDoC constructs, that might serve as targets for preventive interventions.
• Studies that examine the role of connectedness and belongingness as a protective factor in reducing risk for suicide (e.g., strong familial support/relationships; religious and spiritual engagement; community/social support).
• Etiological studies designed to gain a better understanding of the increases in suicide and SIB in Black youth.
• Integration of existing nationally representative, developmentally focused data sets, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, and administrative data, to be able to answer questions regarding the relationship between mental health, suicide, and SIB of Black youth.
• Studies to gain a better understanding of sub-populations who may be at increased risk (e.g., children and adolescents with a history of child abuse and/or neglect, youth who have been bullied, youth who are in special education, sexual and gender minorities, children and adolescents in the child welfare or juvenile justice system, youth who experience increased family conflict, youth who use and/or misuse alcohol and/or other substances, children and adolescents with mental health disorders, etc.).
• Studies that examine the role of racial disparities in access to mental health services and the role of untreated or insufficiently treated mental health disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder in risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
• Studies that examine the role of online media and risk for mental health difficulties and risk for suicide and SIB.
• Studies that gain a better understanding of the role of trauma in contributing to mental health difficulties, suicide, and SIB. Trauma can include exposure to racism, discrimination, neighborhood violence, economic insecurity, abuse, grief, and other adverse childhood experiences.

Intervention and Services Research

For research on the effectiveness of interventions or services, NIMH supports studies that employ an experimental therapeutics approach, whereby clinical trials are designed not only to test the intervention effects on outcomes of interest, but also to inform understanding of the intervention’s mechanisms of action. As such, applications that propose to develop and/or test the efficacy/effectiveness of preventive, therapeutic or services interventions must include specification of the intervention target(s)/mechanism(s) and assessment of intervention-induced changes in the presumed target mechanism(s) that are hypothesized to account for the intervention outcome. In the case of services interventions, targets/mechanisms might involve mutable consumer- or provider-behaviors, or organizational-/system-level factors that are intervened upon in order to improve access, continuity, quality, equity, and/or value of services. Studies adapting existing preventive, therapeutic or services interventions to specifically target Black and Black LGBTQ+ children and adolescents should provide a justification for the unique targets to be tested. Research generating new information about factors causing/reducing disparities in outcomes is strongly encouraged as it may inform other intervention areas. See the Support for Clinical Trials at NIMH web page for additional information regarding dedicated Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) for NIMH clinical trials research support.

Preventive Interventions

• Studies that harmonize and integrate data from prevention trials to examine the mechanisms by which interventions that target other outcomes impact mental health and suicide and/or SIB outcomes in Black youth. This may include examination of long-term and crossover effects, unanticipated beneficial effects of interventions that did not explicitly target suicide risk, ideation, or behavior, to explore effects among Black youth (e.g., family- or school- based preventive interventions focused on prevention of disruptive behavior disorders, internalizing disorders, or substance use/abuse; interventions that address other known risk factors, such as child abuse and neglect, early adverse circumstances, or bullying).
• Early stage clinical trials to establish the feasibility and initial efficacy of novel preventive interventions targeting established, malleable, risk/protective factors (following the NIMH experimental therapeutics approach) in Black youth.
• Effectiveness trials that examine and/or intervene on mechanisms through which empirically identified moderators result in differential effectiveness of research-supported preventive interventions among Black youth.
• Studies that develop and test developmentally relevant preventive interventions that target culturally relevant risk and/or protective factors that have been empirically associated with SIB in Black children and adolescents.
• Studies focused on developing, testing, and implementing of interventions designed to restrict means to gun access.
• Research to inform understanding of the means younger children use for suicide (e.g., suffocation, strangulation) and develop and test interventions to restrict access.

Treatment Interventions

• Studies that harmonize and integrate data from treatment trials to examine impact of the interventions on mental health and suicide and/or SIB in Black youth.
• Effectiveness research trials that examine and/or intervene on mechanisms through which empirically identified moderators result in differential effectiveness of research-supported therapeutic interventions among Black youth.
• Studies that develop and test developmentally relevant treatment interventions that target culturally relevant, malleable risk and protective factors that have been empirically associated with suicide and/or SIB in Black children and adolescents.
• Research to develop and test strategies for parental/guardian involvement in treatment and examine mechanisms by which parent/guardian-child dynamics impact suicide risk over time.

Services Interventions

• Trials that test or compare patient-, provider- or systems-level services interventions that address challenges in service access, use, engagement and retention, quality of care, or setting issues that are commonly or uniquely experienced by Black youth and their families in order to reduce suicide and/or SIB in this population.
• Trials that develop and test technology-based approaches empirically targeted to Black children and adolescents in order to significantly improve: 1) screening, detection and connection to treatment to reduce SIB; 2) delivery of interventions and services with proven effectiveness in reducing suicide and/or SIB; or 3) access to and quality of care to reduce risk and improve outcomes.
• Studies that test diffusion strategies (i.e., dissemination and implementation) to improve delivery of evidence-based suicide prevention, treatments or services in relevant specialty or non-specialty settings serving large numbers of Black youth.
• Studies that test provider-, organizational-, or systems- level interventions to increase the uptake, implementation, fidelity, and sustained use of evidence-based suicide prevention interventions (e.g., provider training and supervision) delivered to Black youth and their families.
• Mixed methods studies to identify mutable targets for improving service use/delivery/equity for and to test the effectiveness of engaging those targets to reduce suicide and/or SIB among Black youth.
• Studies that examine how racial and economic disparities in access to suicide-specific evidence-based interventions affects suicide attempts, especially in Black children and adolescents with a history of suicidal ideation and attempt.

NIMHD Research Priorities

NIMHD encourages projects that use approaches encompassing multiple domains of influence (e.g., biological, behavioral, sociocultural, environmental, physical environment, health system) and multiple levels of influence (e.g., individual, interpersonal, family, peer group, community, societal) to understand and address health disparities (see the NIMHD Research Framework, https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/overview/research-framework.html, for more information).

Click on links below for descriptions of NIMHD’s main research interest areas and contact information for a scientific program contact in each area:

Community Health and Population Sciences
Clinical and Health Services Research
Integrative Biological and Behavioral Sciences

Design, Analysis, and Sample Size Considerations for Studies to Evaluate Interventions:

Investigators seeking to evaluate the effect of an intervention on a health-related biomedical or behavioral outcome may propose a study design in which groups subjected to the intervention are compared to groups that are exposed to an appropriate comparison condition. The comparison condition should be justified based on the state-of-the-science for the intervention and the nature of the research question.Designs that might be proposed for studies that randomize groups or deliver interventions to groups include parallel group- or cluster-randomized trials, stepped-wedge group- or cluster- randomized trials, multiple baseline designs, and another quasi-experimental designs. Whenever participants are assigned in groups or clusters (e.g., families, clinics, schools, worksites, communities, counties, states), or participants receive some part of their intervention in a group or cluster, and observations on individual participants are analyzed for between-group effects, special methods are required for analysis and sample size. Applicants will need to show that their methods are appropriate given their plans for assignment of participants and delivery of interventions. Additional information is available at https://researchmethodsresources.nih.gov/.

IC Specific Application and Submission Information

Applicants must select the IC and associated FOA to use for submission of an application in response to this NOSI. The selection must align with the IC requirements listed in order to be considered responsive to that FOA. Non-responsive applications will be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative. In addition, applicants using NIH Parent Announcements (listed below) will be assigned to those ICs on this NOSI that have indicated those FOAs are acceptable and based on usual application-IC assignment practices.

This NOSI applies to due dates on or after August 25, 2020 and subsequent receipt dates through July 31, 2022.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcements through the expiration date of this notice.

NIMHwill accept applications submitted underRFA-MH-18-707, RFA-MH-18-706, RFA-MH-18-700, RFA-MH-18-701, RFA-MH-20-506, RFA-MH-20-505, PAR-19-189, PA-20-185, PAR-18-929, PAR-18-479, PA-19-091, PA-18-350, PAR-18-228, PA-17-264, PAR-19-384, PAR-19-373, RFA MH-20-400, RFA-MH-20-401.

NIMHDwill accept applications submitted underPA-20-185, PA-20-183, PA-19-091, PAR-19-384, PAR-19-373.

Submit applications for this initiative using one of the following funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or any reissues of these announcement through the expiration date of this notice.

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-20-055 (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.

Inquiries

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Stacia Friedman-Hill, PhD
Division of Translational Research
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-443-8458
Email: friedmans@mail.nih.gov

Eve Reider, PhD
Division of Services and Intervention Research
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-827-1496
Email: ereider@mail.nih.gov

Dorothy M. Castille, Ph.D.
Community Health and Population Sciences
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Telephone: 301-594-9411
Email: dorothy.castille@nih.gov

Rada K Dagher, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Clinical and Health Services Research
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Telephone: 301-451-2187
Email: rada.dagher@nih.gov

Nadra C. Tyus, Dr.PH., M.P.H.
Integrative Biological and Behavioral Sciences
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Telephone: 301-594-8065
Email: nadra.tyus@nih.gov

Jacqueline Lloyd, PhD, MSW
Office of Disease Prevention (ODP)
Telephone: 301-827-5559
Email: lloydj2@nih.gov