Part 2 is here!

In this follow-up episode, we take a deeper look at the Madison Area Recovery Initiative (MARI). Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska (Penn State), Captain Joe Balles (retired, Madison Police Department), and Captain Diana Nachtigal (Madison Police Department) share how evidence-based outreach, peer recovery partnerships, and innovative diversion strategies are reshaping the connections between policing, addiction recovery, and community health.

More information on MARI can be found here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/community/mari/

You know what time it is - new episode! This one takes a deep dive into how community policing supports recovery and crime reduction, specifically within the Madison, Wisconsin area. The host, Michael Donovan, sits down with Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska from Penn State, Captain Joe Balles, and Captain Diana Nachtigal of the Madison Police Department to explore this topic further.

The conversation dives into the development of the Madison Area Recovery Initiative (MARI), an innovative police-led diversion program designed to break the cycle of drug-related offenses without relying on the traditional justice system. The episode offers a new perspective into how evidence-based policing and community engagement can transform public health outcomes, and sustain these efforts long term.

More information on MARI can be found here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/community/mari/

We are back! We have a discussion with Denise Holden, founder and CEO of the RASE Project, a recovery community organization that has since expanded outside of Pennsylvania and Dr. Sarah Kawasaki, the Chief of Addiction Medicine, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine at Penn State Health. 

This episode discusses the opioid crisis, the negative stigma surrounding this, and the process of recovery.

Summary:

The substance use epidemic in the United States remains a significant public health concern. The rate of drug overdose deaths has increased substantially over the past decade. This risk is particularly heightened when individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) encounter a transition in their lives, such as being released from a correctional facility. Within two weeks of release, the risk of overdose is between 8-40 times higher than standard risk. People with SUD are also overrepresented in the criminal justice system and often experience barriers to services. Effectively treating and preventing SUD among this population can help reduce recidivism, SUD and overdose rates, and lead to other positive outcomes for individuals, families, and communities (e.g., crime reduction, mental health, economic mobility). The consequences of inaction are far-reaching, which motivates this panel to discuss policy options with bipartisan appeal. Researchers will discuss innovative strategies to address SUD among justice-involved individuals – during and after release from incarceration. Additionally, the researchers can share insights on innovative approaches, opportunities to involve families in recovery, and ways to remove barriers to services.

Panelists:

• Erin S. Corbett, EdD; CEO, Second Chance Educational Alliance, Inc. (Moderator)
• Melissa Svigelj, PhD; Assistant Professor, Justice Studies, James Madison University 
• Noel Vest, PhD; Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Public Health 
• Christy Visher, PhD; Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware

Key Points in Discussion:

• RTP Introduction 00:02
• Moderator Introduction 03:32
• Panelist Introductions 04:50
• Discussion 08:00
• Concluding Remarks 47:33

We’re back! The Evidence-to-Impact Podcast is back with a new episode where we discuss The Adolescent Health Network (AHN) from Penn State PRO Wellness. This episode features a conversation with Dr. Deepa Sekhar, executive director of Penn State PRO Wellness, Victoria Smith, career coordinator at Hershey High School in the Derry Township School District, and two amazing 12th-grade students and past program participants, Sarah Anderson, and Mena Morsy.

The AHN is a program that connects health researchers with teens to get their feedback on research ideas, helps researchers design studies that are more relevant to adolescents, and gives students valuable experiential knowledge of health careers and research in general. This program is a great way to ensure your research is relevant to teens and their health needs. In addition to providing feedback on research ideas, teens can also help with study design, recruitment, and dissemination strategies. 

We're closing out this semester's season with a conversation about prevention and partnerships. We focus on a discussion between a long-standing collaborative relationship between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Commonwealth government, which targets interventions and prevention work targeted towards youth and families. Our episode covers a wide span of topics, including why prevention and implementation work are difficult, but critical; the changes that happen when there's a political transition, and much more.

We spoke to Janet Welsh, PhD, Research Professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center, and the Principal Investigator of the Evidence-based Prevention Intervention and Support program (EPIS) and SPEP™ (Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol) at Penn State, and Geoff Kolchin, Deputy Director of Unit of Violence Prevention Initiatives in the Office of Justice Programs at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), about their decades long collaboration between EPIS and PCCD.

Resources and Additional Information

• Wrong Pocket Problem
• PAYS Reports

The transcript is available here.

For this month’s episode, we did something a little different. We spoke to two researchers with two different approaches to tackling the same problem: knowledge mobilization. In essence, the concept of knowledge mobilization focuses on making knowledge, resources or practices that exist in one space and making them accessible to specific audiences. We talked about the work behind SOSNetLab (Social Opportunity Space Networking Lab) and the Research-to-Policy Collaboration, barriers to this type of research and implementation, and what the future has in store for addressing this problem.

We spoke to Taylor Scott, PhD., Co-Director of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration and Assistant Research Professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center at Penn State, and Alan J. Daly, PhD., SOSNetLab Chief Executive Dreamer, and Professor, University of California, San Diego as well as SOSNetLab’s full team, which includes: Mimi Lockton, Ed.D., SOSNETLAB Chief Project Catalyzer, and Doctoral Candidate at the University of California San Diego; Anita Caduff, SOSNETLAB Chief Swiss Army Knife, and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California San Diego, and Martin Rehm, Ph.D., SOSNETLAB Chief Data Wrangler, and Post-Doctoral Scholar at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

Resources

• SOSNetLab’s Website
• Research-to-Policy Collaboration’s Website
• Taylor mentions the work of Jennie Noll, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State, Director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Children, and a previous guest on this podcast; and Francesca Lopez, the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and Professor of Education at Penn State.
• Additionally, Taylor discusses working with the Kauffman Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation to expand their work on entrepreneurial research.
• SOSNet’s work is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The transcript for the episode is available here.

This month's episode tackles a fascinating combination of topics involving the impact of biological and social factors on chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, and the prevention and treatment efforts for those chronic diseases through state and local government programs.

We spoke to Lindsay Fernández-Rhodes, Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health and the Director of Epidemiology and Genetics across Populations & Societies Laboratory at Penn State, and Amy Flaherty, Director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Bureau of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Department of Health, about public health, epidemiology, prevention work, and the influence of genetics and our environment on our health. 

Resources and Additional Information

• Amy mentions the Chronic Disease Burden Report that her Bureau released earlier in 2021.
• Additionally, Amy discusses the National Diabetes Program, which has been in effect since 2010. For more information about obesity related programs, check out the Pennsylvania Department of Health's website and Center on Disease Control's website.
• Amy talks about the State Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) grant, which is a five-year state investment that improve nutrition and support safe and accessible physical activity. She discusses the Healthy Pantry Initiative, a partnership with Feeding Pennsylvania, which helps to increase healthier options at food pantries across Pennsylvania, and WalkWorks, an initiative between the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center that supports the development and adoption of active transportation plans or related policies.
• Much of Lindsay’s work focuses on Latino communities and community-based cohorts. She mentions the article ‘Demographic and sociocultural risk factors for adulthood weight gain in Hispanic/Latinos: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)’ as a particular example of her work in this space. This website provides a longer description of the public health parable and how going ‘upstream’ can address health inequities.

The transcript is available here.

This month's episode discusses mental health screenings for adolescents in the K-12 school system. We spoke to Deepa Sekhar, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the College of Medicine, and Executive Director, Penn State PRO Wellness; Perri Rosen, PhD, NCSP, Consulting Psychologist, Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Pennsylvania Dept. of Human Services, and Steve Sharp, School Counselor in the Hempfield School District, and K-12 School Counseling Coordinator for the Hempfield School District about why having mental health screenings (or mood screenings) in K-12 schools makes a difference when helping children who might be struggling and getting them the resources that they need to succeed.

Episode Resources and References

• The SHIELD study is mentioned several times throughout the episode. SHIELD stands for Screening in High Schools to Identify, Evaluate and Lower Depression.
• The Student Assistance Program (SAP) is a systematic team process used to mobilize school resources to remove barriers to learning. SAP is designed to assist in identifying issues including alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and mental health issues which pose a barrier to a student’s success.
• Steve mentions receiving a school safety grant through Pennsylvania Commission and Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). He also mentions getting an ESSER grant through the Department of Education.
• Deepa discusses the SHIELD study receiving funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
• Steve mentions using MTSS teams, which stands for multi-tiered systems of supports.
• Lastly, Steven talks about the CAMS Model (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality), which is a therapeutic framework for suicide-specific assessment and treatment of a patient’s suicidal risk.

The end of the spring semester marks the release of another episode! This month, we tackled the tough topic of mental health among college students. We talked about how COVID-19 has impacted college students seeking mental health services, the challenges for counselors and administrators working in university mental health centers, policy solutions to the crisis, and other things that have happened as a result of the pandemic like changes in technology.

We spoke to Maithreyi Gopalan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education and Public Policy and Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member at Penn State, and Brett Scofield, Ph.D., Associate Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Penn State and Executive Director of Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) about mental health, college students, what universities are doing (and should be doing), and a little bit of everything in between.

Episode Resources and References

• There's been a series of articles in the New York Times about adolescent mental health that are worth perusing: Teens In Distress Are Swamping Pediatricians, ‘It’s Life or Death’: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens, Hundreds of Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms. Every Night., and Surgeon General Warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis.
• Maithreyi mentions a study that she did with her colleagues, Stephanie Lanza, Ph.D. and Ashley-Linden Carmichael, Ph.D., from the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center, about overall college experiences, the student community, and their sense of belonging and impact that may have on their well being, health, and academic performance.
• Brett discusses the Clinical Load Index (CLI), a metric used to measure the average annual caseload of a clinician at a mental health center.
• Maithreyi mentions the dozens of calls for grant applications opened up by the National Institute of Mental Health about understanding the effect of the pandemic on mental health.
• Brett discusses two researchers involved with projects at CCMH: Louis Castonguay, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Hayes, Ph.D.

The transcript for the episode is available here.