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March 2023 Newsletter

In this Issue...

  • Save the Date! Mass Dept. of Mental Health Research Centers of Excellence Conference
  • New Website for Lifeline for Moms!
  • Just Released! Toolkit for Hiring Clinicians Best Practices Resource Guide for DMH
  • New Tip Sheet for Youth - My "Must Have" Papers
  • New STAY Tuned Podcast Episodes & Info-Comics for Young Adults
  • New Research Brief on How Electronic Job Coaches Improve Employment for People with Disabilities
  • In the News, We're Hiring, In Case You Missed It, and more

Save the Date!

Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Centers of Excellence Conference

SAVE the DATE! Stories of Hope:

Real-World Change through Mental Health Research

The 2023 Annual Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Research Centers of Excellence Conference "Stories of Hope: Real World Change Through Mental Health Research" will be held on May 1, 2023.


The conference is hosted by the two Research Centers of Excellence.


The goal of this conference is for Massachusetts Department of Mental Health staff, clients, their family members, and providers to learn more about the work of these two Research Centers of Excellence.


SAVE THE DATE:


Date: Monday, May 1, 2023 

Time: 12:30pm – 4:30pm 

Virtual Platform: Zoom Webinar 

Registration: Coming Soon 

More Information

Lifeline for Moms has a New Website!

Lifeline for Moms is about helping communities optimize perinatal mental health. Lack of treatment can lead to devastating effects on perinatal individuals, infants, and families. Multi-level barriers continue to make it difficult for policymakers, advocates, and caregiving professionals to develop and implement systematic approaches that improve perinatal mental health care access and quality. Lifeline for Moms has developed multi-level evidence-based interventions including the population-level, sustainable Perinatal Psychiatry Access Program model to improve perinatal mental health care around the world.

Visit Lifeline for Moms

DMH Workforce

Technical Assistance Program Updates

The iSPARC Technical Assistance/Consultation and External Funding Program is responsible for providing basic and intensive technical assistance (TA) services to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and its contracted providers.


We've just released our Toolkit for Hiring Clinicians Best Practices and updated our Technical Assistance Information for MassDMH. Learn more below. Resource Guide

Visit our DMH Workforce Page

New Products

My “Must Have” Papers

Managing the Paperwork of Adulting

Becoming a young adult means a lot of paperwork. Real IDs, Social Security cards, passports, medical records, employment records and more. It can be overwhelming! How do you know what's the most important documents to hold onto, and what isn't as important? How do you know which documents to carry with you at all times and which to keep safely at home? This new tip sheet, a collaboration between our Young Adult Advisory Board and our Family Advisory Board can help you answer those questions, and others. The goal is to make the transition to adulthood just a little bit easier.

Read the Tip Sheet Here

New Podcast Episodes

S.T.A.Y. Tuned Podcast: Supporting Transition Aged Youth with Mental Health Conditions

Episode 7: Is Anyone Out There? The Isolation of "Adulthood"


Episode 6: We're working on it! featuring Emma Narkewicz, MPA


Episode 5: The WEIGHT of weight stigma featuring Dr. Nana Yaa Marfo


Episode 4: Trauma informed care for LGBTQ+ youth with Antonia Barba, LCSW

Listen to the New Podcasts

Adulting Shorts: The "TEA" on IEPs Part 3

Info-Comics are a popular way to share information with youth and young adults today. Our team at Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research has been producing and disseminating results of our research around IEPs and transition planning for many years. Recently we've begun using info-comics as a method to reach the youth and young adult populations directly.


For additional information about our research on transition planning read about our TEST project here.

View Our Info-Comics Here

Electronic Job Coaches Improve Employment Outcomes for People with Disabilities

Electronic job coaches are an assistive technology that can improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Research conducted by CreateAbility Concepts, Inc. and disseminated by our Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (CeKTER) has shown that job coaches, supervisors and people with disabilities prefer electronic job coaches to other traditional job supports. Learn more about why and how electronic job coaches improve employment for people with disabilities in our new brief.

Read the Research Brief

In Case You Missed It

Dr. Nancy Byatt Discusses the Importance of Maternal Mental Health

In light of recent family tragedies and loss of life of young children, Dr. Nancy Byatt, Executive Director of Lifeline for Moms and Lifeline for Families at UMass Chan Medical School, has been interviewed by dozens of news sources, locally and nationally, all seeking her expertise on maternal mental health and the topic of postpartum depression and other mental health conditions that coincide with pregnancy and a new baby. Dr. Byatt is a researcher at iSPARC, and a perinatal psychiatrist and physician-scientist focused on improving health care systems to promote perinatal mental health.


You can read many of the interviews and learn more about maternal mental health at the link below.

View Key Maternal Mental Health Resources

Have you heard?


The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is now:

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline


Simply calling or texting 988 or chatting 988Lifeline.org will connect you to compassionate care and support for mental health-related distress.

Visit the 988 Lifeline website for more information.

We are Hiring! Come Join Our Team

Are you looking to grow your career in an academic research setting? Check out all of the great employment opportunities (hybrid eligible) we have within iSPARC and our research centers. Consider applying today or share with someone you know who would be interested!

View our employment opportunities here.

Who We Are

As a MA Department of Mental Health Research Center of Excellence, we are here to help the MA DMH workforce with any Technical Assistance (TA) needs they may have by providing information based on research. iSPARC can provide expertise and information on a wide range of mental health-related topics. We provide Basic TA (e.g., tip sheets, brief phone consultation, etc.) at no cost and can provide more intensive TA (e.g., policy development, training, etc.) which requires approval of your area director or deputy commissioner, or for a fee.

The Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center is a part of the Department of Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School (formerly the University of Massachusetts Medical School). 


iSPARC is a Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) Center of Excellence (COE) for Public Mental Health Services and Implementation Research that aims to improve the mental and behavioral health of all citizens of Massachusetts and beyond. iSPARC is committed to transferring knowledge and insights gained through rigorous research to improve the lives of people with lived mental health experience.


We conduct Participatory Action Research, an all-inclusive approach that ensures that every aspect of our research incorporates the voices of those with lived mental health experience.

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