Blog Viewer

My area of interest is integrated behavioral health screening and motivational interviewing for risky behaviors. My earlier research was prompted by a colleague who was a Family Nurse Practitioner. Together we went on to publish and present on the topic. This lead to funding by intramural/national organizational extramural grants for the development of a screening tool for use in primary care and school settings that identified children and adolescents at risk for NSSI. As a visiting professor in South Korea, I continued to research NSSI. My Korean colleague and I successfully conducted a qualitative descriptive study of the perceptions of South Korean young adults who were non-suicidal self-injurers leading to two more publications. My current research interests have evolved after Motivational Interviewing (MI) which has had a wonderful fit as an intervention for children and adolescents screening of at-risk for mental health and substance use issues.

Relevance

My more recent work, a pilot study within school systems demonstrated that it is possible to provide SBIRT and MI as an early intervention for children and adolescents. There is a need to continue to implement and evaluate SBIRT and MI in school systems on a larger scale.  

Goals/Achievements

I received national organization funding and conducted a pilot study of SIBRT and MI within in a public-school system in the mid-west.  I have also been Co-Director three traineeship grants, Director for a State Funded traineeship grant, and Director of a HRSA Opioid Workforce Expansion Program traineeship grant: Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Opioid Workforce Expansion Program (OWEP) for the Gulf Coast Region aimed at expanding the Gulf Coast Region’s (OUD)/substance use disorders (SUD) workforce. Through this grant, I have also developed an Addictions Nursing Subspecialty, the first in the state of Alabama, one of the few in the U.S