Project Descriptions
Current Projects
Substance Use Disorders Education and Leadership Scholars (SUDEALS) Program
$33,000
September 2024 - September 2027
Description: The SUDEALS program encourages and enhances social work workforce capacity in the substance use disorders area of specialized practice. The goal of the program is to create a cohort of social work leaders specializing in substance use disorders by engaging cohorts of BSW and MSW students, together with practice and research mentors. Each year, 4 selected students who are completing practicum with organizations that address the impact of substance use will receive stipends, a conference travel award, and advanced training.
Funder: Council on Social Work Education
Parent Grant: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Opioid Response Network.
Project Director: Jeffrey Steen, PhD
Current Simmons University Faculty Involvement: Jeannine Chester
Preparing to Establish an Overdose Prevention Center: Exploring the Perspectives of HIV and Substance Use Service Providers and People Who Use Drugs
$24,952
September 2024 - August 2025
Description: Globally, overdose prevention centers (OPCs), also referred to as supervised consumption sites, have achieved numerous favorable outcomes, such as reducing public drug use, slowing disease transmission, reducing fatal overdoses, and increasing access to health, behavioral health, and community services. As Massachusetts prepares to develop some of the nation's first OPCs, it is essential to assess the experiences and recommendations of key constituents so that this model of care is acceptable and relevant. This pre-implementation study is using qualitative methods to understand barriers and facilitators to developing OPCs, as identified by service providers and people who use drugs.
Award #: 5P30DA011041-27
Parent Grant: New York University, School of Global Public Health
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse
Project Director: Jeffrey Steen, PhD
Transdisciplinary Mentors: Ellen Benoit and Alexandra Collins
Principal Investigator: Holly Hagan, PhD
Expectant and Parenting Foster Youth Study
Principal Investigator: Justin Harty, PhD (Arizona State University)
Co-Investigator and Simmons University Site PI: Kristen Ethier, PhD
Integrated Suicide and Substance Use Intervention for Adolescents in Substance Use Treatment (iSITS)
$89,835
January 2022 - January 2024, in NCE
Description: Substance use increases risk for adolescents with suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). Typically, adolescents with heavy and/or problematic substance use receive treatment on an outpatient basis, where STB are rarely addressed in a comprehensive manner because substance use is the primary focus of treatment in these programs and because clinicians are not adequately trained in how to assess and treat adolescents at risk for suicide. Given the role that substance use can play in STB, and vice versa, greater attention to the development and implementation of integrated suicide and substance use interventions in adolescent outpatient substance use treatment settings is essential. The integrated Alcohol and Suicide Intervention for Suicidal Teens (iASIST) is an alcohol-focused intervention that has demonstrated feasibility and acceptability with suicidal adolescents in inpatient psychiatric treatment. To our knowledge, iASIST is the only brief intervention for adolescents specifically tailored to address the interrelated problems of alcohol use and STB in an integrated way, but it is designed specifically for an inpatient psychiatric population where suicide is the primary concern. There are currently no interventions designed for the reverse problem: suicide risk among adolescents who use substances. By developing a new integrated suicide and substance use intervention for adolescents who are heavy substance users, we are targeting a high-risk group and their highest risk behaviors. The primary goal of this research is to develop and test an intervention targeting STB among adolescents in outpatient substance use treatment.
Funded by: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Award #: YIG-1-165-20
Principal Investigator: Christina M. Sellers, PhD
Current Simmons University Faculty Involvement: Kristen Ethier, PhD
Simmons Workforce Wellbeing Empowerment Project (SWWEP) Scholars Program
$298,393.00
May 1, 2022 - April 30, 2025
Description: The Simmons Workforce Wellbeing Empowerment Project trains masters level social work students (MSWs) to provide trauma-informed mental health services to children and provides education to these trainees that supports workforce well-being. Specifically, SWWEP recruits and stipends 18 students from communities underrepresented in the field of social work and most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and social, economic, and health inequities. Trainees earn an MSW with a Certificate in Trauma Practice. They also earn a Certificate in Wellbeing Science and Burnout by completing a wellbeing-science informed intervention that includes didactic training and supportive peer groups focusing on issues of burnout and secondary traumatic stress prevention; street level bureaucracy and the impact of organizational culture on worker wellbeing; an exploration of resilience with an emphasis on the challenges of achieving resilience in the face of oppression and discrimination. SWWEP Scholars expands and diversifies the children's mental health workforce, while focusing on workforce empowerment and retention.
Funded by: Boston Children's Hospital
Award #: N/A
Principal Investigator: Melinda Gushwa, PhD
Current Simmons University Faculty Involvement: Renada Goldberg, PhD
Harm Reduction Training (HaRT) Scholars Program
$289,856
June 2024-May 2025
Description: The HaRT Scholars Program engages a small cohort of Masters-level social work (MSW) students in specialized training related to the principles and practices of harm reduction for substance use. The HaRT Scholars Program aims to expand the presence of social workers in the behavioral health workforce, specifically in community-based settings that provide harm reduction-informed services. Each year, 4-6 students from Simmons' onground and online platforms are selected to participate in this initiative. Students from racial and ethnic minoritized communities are encouraged to apply. Selected students receive a stipend, specialized supervision at their practicum sites, and opportunities to participate in small group case consultations and discussions with the Project Director. As part of this award, Simmons hosts an annual online Harm Reduction Summit and other substance use-focused training, provided to students and professionals in social work and other disciplines.
Funded by: RIZE Massachusetts
Award #: 00098
Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Steen, PhD
The Institute for Trauma Treatment in Schools
$2,929,616
October 2021 - September 2026
Description: The Institute for Trauma Treatment in Schools (ITTS), provides training to Masters of Social Work students and counseling students nationwide on school-based mental health and trauma. This is a five-year collaborative project between Simmons University’s CIBER and the Alliance for Inclusion and Prevention – organizations with a long history of providing state-of-the-art trauma training in school-based interventions. This comprehensive training program gives you the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge about trauma care techniques and best practices and learn from experienced professionals and experts in the field. The training topics covered include The Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) Framework, The CARE Model, Vicarious Trauma and STSS, and many more topics. Our program is tailored to provide students with an understanding of trauma care, encompassing both theoretical knowledge and practical application.
Funded by: SAMHSA National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, Center for Mental Health Services
Award #: 1H79SM085045-01
Principal Investigator: Melinda Gushwa, PhD
Current Simmons University Faculty Involvement: Gordon Chinamasa
CIBER Staff: Carlie Capell
Expansion of Substance Use Practitioner Education (ESPE)
$196,591
April 2020 - April 2022
Description: The Simmons SSW Expansion of Substance Use Practitioner Education (ESPE) program supported the development and evaluation of a curriculum, Substance Use and Social Work Practice, for use in Master-level social work programs at Simmons. The curriculum is now a required course for all MSW students across both online and campus-based educational platforms. The course teaches students to identify, assess, and provide evidence-based care and interventions for individuals with substance use disorders, with particular attention to alcohol, marijuana, stimulants, and opioids. During the two-year grant period, the course was implemented 70 times over 17 academic terms and across two program platforms. In total, 1,204 MSW students completed the course and 17 instructors were trained to teach evidence-informed substance use treatment content. More than 500 MSW students at Simmons continue to be trained through this curriculum every year.
Funded by: SAMHSA Expansion of Practitioner Education
Award #:1H79FG000119-01
Principal Investigator: Jen Putney, PhD
Simmons Trauma Education Project (STEP)
$300,000
May 2019 - May 2022
Description: The Simmons Trauma Education Project (STEP) trained 15 MSW students and 58 field supervisors to provide high-quality, culturally aware, trauma-informed care to children and families impacted by trauma. STEP expanded and strengthened the reach of the SSW's MSW-based trauma certificate to the Boston-area mental health workforce. In particular, STEP focused on recruiting and providing stipends to MSW students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in the field, including individuals identifying as members of linguistic minority, LGBTQ+, immigrant, ethnically and/or racially diverse populations and rural backgrounds. Findings from STEP continue to inform the advancement of trauma-informed care delivered through the MSW trauma certificate, the most sought after credential within the MSW program, and expand the breadth of trauma-informed services in the greater Boston area.
Funded by: Boston Children's Collaboration for Community Health - Mental Health and Youth Support Systems
Award #: N/A
Principal Investigator: Melinda Gushwa, PhD
SIMPACT-Simmons Opioid Workforce Expansion Program (SOWEP)
$1,281,354
September 2019 - August 2022
Description: The SOWEP Scholars Program advanced the behavioral health workforce by training 77 MSW students in evidence-based opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance-use disorder (SUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery services for individuals disproportionately impacted by substance use. The SOWEP curriculum included didactic, interprofessional training and education in the classroom, as well as experiential learning in community-based settings located in high-need, high-demand areas. Settings included non-traditional sites such as Harvard Law School, Boston Emergency Services Team, and Boston Children's Hospital Division of Emergency Medicine. SOWEP Scholars engaged in practicum education training focusing on integrated behavioral health care, evidence-based treatment, and harm reduction services for substance use and are committed to growing the behavioral health workforce in communities with the highest need.
Funded by: Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)
Award #: T98HP33418
Principal Investigator: Jen Putney, PhD
SIMPACT-Substance Use Disorders Supplemental Funding
$358,068
September 2018 - August 2020
Description: The SIMPACT-SUD Scholars Program was supported via a competitive supplement to the HRSA-funded SIMPACT Scholars Program and aimed to expand the behavioral health workforce, including Master-level social work students, faculty, and field supervisors, in the implementation, teaching, and delivery of integrated behavioral health and substance use treatment services. Through the SIMPACT-SUD Scholars Program, the SSW partnered with four Boston-area Federally Qualified Health Centers: Codman Square Health Center, Family Health Center of Worcester, South End Community Health Center, and Outer Cape Health Services to enhance experiential training for MSW students, as well as agency-wide training related to treatment of OUDs and other SUDs. Over the course of the grant, 18 SIMPACT-SUD Scholars engaged in stipended didactic and experiential training focusing on integrated behavioral health care and substance use. Likewise, each partner health center received $400,000 to develop and strengthen organizational infrastructure to provide integrated behavioral health and substance use services within their local communities.
Funded by: Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)
Award #: M01HP31340
Principal Investigator: Jen Putney, PhD
Simmons Integrated Mental Health Primary Care and Clinical Training (SIMPACT)
$1,889,559
September 2017 - August 2022
Description: The SIMPACT Scholars Program aimed to strengthen the behavioral health workforce that is skilled in the provision of evidence-based, integrated behavioral health services in primary care settings serving historically marginalized and minoritized populations. A dual aim of the SIMPACT Scholars Program was to build a workforce that is more reflective of the individuals it serves; thus, the program focused on recruiting and providing stipends to MSW students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, including individuals identifying as members racial and/or ethnic minority, linguistic minority, LGBTQ+, and immigrant populations, as well as individuals from rural and economically or environmentally disadvantaged backgrounds. Over four years, the SIMPACT Scholars Program trained 119 MSW students to provide high-quality, integrated behavioral health in primary care settings in urban and rural medically underserved areas. As of 2022, over 50% of SIMPACT Scholar graduates were employed in settings located in federally-designated medically underserved areas and/or an area identified as a health professional shortage area (HPSA)
Funded by: Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)
Award #: M01HP31340
Principal Investigator: Jen Putney, PhD