According to the The Medical University of South Caroline (MUSC), more than 20 percent of traumatic injury patients may experience depression or anxiety in the first year post-injury.
Division of Pediatric Surgery Associate Professor and Director of the Trauma Program at Children’s of Alabama Robert Russell, M.D., MPH, and his colleagues aim to change this.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has awarded MUSC a four-year, multi-site project grant, “Evaluation of Trauma Center-Based, Technology Enhanced Stepped Care Intervention for Adolescent Traumatic Injury Survivors.”
Russell has been named a co-site principal investigator on the $2.4 million R01 grant.
Collaborating with MUSC, whose efforts are led by overall PI Tatiana Davidson, Ph.D., associate professor in the MUSC college of nursing, Russell will lead the project efforts here at UAB, which is an ideal co-site as a level-1 trauma center.
A team of researchers across the nation will investigate the potential implementation of a Trauma Resilience and Recovery Program (TRRP), as well as its efficacy and preliminary effectiveness. A TRRP is an innovative, cost-effective, sustainable technology-enhanced intervention designed to address the unique needs of adolescent injury patients.
Ultimately, a TRRP aims to mitigate short- and long-term impact of injury on mental health, quality of life, and overall well-being of adolescent injury patients. Touchpoints of the program for patients include meeting during the hospital visit, text messaging checkups, recovery assessment, and counseling services.
According to MUSC, the overall goal of the TRRP itself is to accelerate mental health recovery by identifying and treating symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder early in the recovery process after injury. Russell is proud to partner with researchers on this grant.
“I am looking forward to leading our research efforts here at UAB,” said Russell. “The mental health of our adolescent injury patients is key to preventing future injuries and reducing their mental burden that they so often carry following an injury.”