MSU psychology faculty, staff lead more than $14M in grants, expand behavioral health services statewide

Contact: Sarah Nicholas

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State psychology faculty and staff are leading new behavioral health grant initiatives totaling more than $14 million—the department’s highest concurrent funding—to expand substance use treatment, suicide prevention, trauma-focused care and crisis-response training across Mississippi.

The projects include six grants totaling more than $13.5 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, and the Mississippi Department of Mental Health. An additional SAMHSA-funded campus suicide prevention grant brings the combined value of the initiatives to approximately $14.6 million.

“This is by far the most funding our department has ever brought in at one time, but the dollar figure is the least interesting part of it,” said Michael R. Nadorff, professor of psychology and director of MSU Behavioral Health, the university’s community behavioral health clinic. “A teenager in rural Mississippi who needs trauma treatment now has somewhere to go because our clinic will have a prescriber for the first time in its history, and first responders across the state will have real training before they walk into a mental health crisis.

“Mississippi has never had a shortage of people who need help,” he said. “What we are short on is places to send them.”

The new grant-funded projects include:

—Project Brief Intervention and Referral to Get Youth Engaged. PI Michael Nadorff leads the five-year Project BRIDGE providing universal substance use screening, brief intervention and treatment to youth ages 12-21 through MSU Behavioral Health and partner pediatric practices and youth-serving organizations, with referrals to specialized treatment when needed.

—SAMHSA Targeted Capacity Expansion. Nadorff also leads a three-year project providing no-cost treatment for substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders to Mississippi college students ages 18-24 who can receive care in Starkville or through telehealth anywhere in the state. The project also will fund a psychiatric nurse practitioner, MSU Behavioral Health’s first prescribing provider.

—Mississippi Youth Resilience Center. PI Aggie Rieger, assistant professor of psychology, leads MY-REC, a five-year SAMHSA award through the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. It will provide evidence-based trauma treatment to children and families in rural Mississippi, including children with autism and other developmental disabilities who often have limited access to specialized care. It can serve 660 families and engage communities through listening sessions, an advisory board and training for community leaders.

—First Responder Overdose Reversal Training and Post-Overdose System of Care, or SAFE RESPONSE MS. Danielle K. Nadorff, associate professor of psychology, leads this four-year SAMHSA project training first responders and community members across rural Mississippi to recognize and reverse opioid overdoses using naloxone. The project operates through MSU Behavioral Health with a companion award at the Mississippi State Department of Health and also connects overdose survivors with treatment and recovery resources.

—Mental Health Awareness and Response Training. MHART is a three-year SAMHSA grant led by PI Rebecca Kimbrough, a staff counselor in MSU’s Department of Psychology who developed the curriculum and has used it to train more than 1,000 first responders across the Magnolia State. The new award renews and expands her work.

—Garrett Lee Smith Youth Suicide Prevention. This five-year SAMHSA project is funded through the Mississippi Department of Mental Health with MSU’s grant portion led by Rachel-Clair Franklin, a licensed MSU Behavioral Health professional counselor and trainer. It will provide statewide suicide prevention and postvention training for healthcare providers, first responders, school personnel and other community members

—Bulldogs RISE. Complementing the youth suicide prevention program is Bulldogs RISE, a four-year, Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention grant led by Kim Kavalsky, assistant director of Health Promotion and Sexual Assault Services in MSU’s Office for Student Well-Being.

Together, the initiatives extend the university’s behavioral health work from campus into communities across the state while creating opportunities for MSU students to gain hands-on experience in research, clinical services, training and community-based behavioral health programs.

“In every meeting I have with outside partners, I ask them what are the gaps that we need to fill, and these are consistently among the things mentioned most,” Nadorff said. “I am excited for what it means for mental healthcare in Mississippi.”

Anyone in Mississippi experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by call or text, 24 hours a day. Information about services at MSU Behavioral Health is available online or by calling 662-325-0621.

Visit MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and Department of Psychology websites for more information.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters.