Baylor Faculty Member Earns Nearly $3 Million Grant to Study Evidence-Based Practices in Psychology

March 18, 2019

Grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will fund project to help improve clinical practice for childhood victims of abuse and trauma

OVPR Contact: Whitney Richter, Baylor Office of the Vice Provost for Research, 254-710-7539
Media Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-710-6275
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WACO, Texas (March 18, 2019) – Sara L. Dolan, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences, has been awarded a five-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – for a project aimed at improving clinical practice for children who have been victims of abuse and trauma.

The grant, which totals nearly $3 million, allows Dolan and her collaborators, including Stacy Ryan-Pettes, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, to develop and implement new training methods in assessment and diagnosis for counselors and social workers, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for their patients.

“Grant awards of the magnitude awarded to Sara Dolan, Ph.D., and her colleagues are rare and attests to skillful leadership provided by these faculty that will have a huge impact on our R1 aspirations here at Baylor,” said Lee Nordt, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts & Sciences

Therapists and counselors commonly use evidence-based treatment (EBT) methods, which are interventions that have been validated through scientific studies to be effective for treating a particular disorder. The problem, Dolan said, is that therapists often deploy these treatments without first using evidence-based assessments (EBA), diagnostic methods that are grounded in the most current scientific knowledge.

“Clinicians are pretty good about learning new treatments, but formal assessment is not a huge part of what they do in practice so they’re not following the literature in that area as closely,” Dolan said. “They are doing very informal assessments that let them start treatment right away.”

These informal evaluation techniques, while faster and more cost-effective than formal, instrument-based assessments, can cause clinicians working with abused and traumatized children to overlook certain disorders in favor of other more obvious problems.

“Oftentimes clinicians are leaping to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” Dolan said, “and they might miss other things like depression or other kinds of anxiety or suicidal behaviors. If they’re jumping right to PTSD, they are going to give PTSD treatments, which is fantastic, but that might not be the correct treatment.”

“Dr. Dolan is a highly respected colleague,” said Charles Weaver, Ph.D., professor and chair of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor. “As graduate program director of our Clinical Psychology program, she has provided strong and steady leadership. Her commitment to research is equally strong, and this grant will allow Dr. Dolan and her colleagues to do critically important work, while also raising the department’s research profile. We look forward to her many years of continuing contributions to Baylor University.”

Jeff Wherry, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, is the co-investigator on the grant. Wherry is the “subject matter expert” on the project, Dolan said, owing to his extensive background in evaluation and assessment of evidence-based practices.

“All of my research is assessment-focused and I have a strong interest in PTSD. [Wherry] has developed a lot of these assessments, and he’s been using these assessments and doing trainings in this area for a long time,” Dolan said. “It was a really natural fit to work with him on this project.”

“The support for training afforded by this SAMHSA grant is exciting,” Wherry said. “We are now part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) – a group of 100 agencies and universities training clinicians and serving traumatized children. We will make training available to 66 community-based agencies serving children in the NCTSN and also will offer training to more than 850 children’s advocacy centers across the nation.”

Over the course of five years, Wherry said they hope to train more than 800 clinicians and doctoral students in evidence-based assessment of abused and traumatized children.

“When you consider the number of children served by these clinicians, the impact is exponential. Additionally, we will be training additional trainers, so that the impact continues beyond the funding of the grant,” Wherry said

While the immediate goal of the grant-funded project is to evaluate the effectiveness of different methods of training providers, Dolan said the work represents one piece of a larger part of Baylor’s mission to impact lives positively through research.

“This is a way that Baylor can influence scientifically based practice in our community. It is giving us an opportunity to have a really big impact and to have Baylor’s name on that impact,” Dolan said.

The project is a great example of the goals articulated in the University’s academic strategic plan, Illuminate, said Kevin Chambliss, Ph.D., interim vice provost for research at Baylor.

“Research like Dr. Dolan’s helps us meet our aspiration of reaching R1 status and becoming one the nation’s top research institutions while strengthening and deepening our Christian commitment,” Chambliss said.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.

ABOUT THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PROVOST FOR RESEARCH AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) supports faculty members from all academic units in their research and scholarship. The office provides pre- and post-award services for grants and contracts, facilitates Industry partnerships and collaborative agreements with external entities, manages compliance oversight, provides assistance with intellectual property and technology transfer, and offers marketing and communication support for Baylor research.

The OVPR also manages and operates the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), a three-story, 330,000-square-foot facility focused on interdisciplinary/international research, industry/university collaborations, business incubation/acceleration/commercialization, advanced workforce training, and STEM educational research and outreach.

For more information, please visit www.baylor.edu/research or www.baylor.edu/bric.