Advancing children’s mental health with innovative approaches in precision healthcare for high risk youth and families
WHAT works? For WHOM? And WHY?
While five decades of research have demonstrated that “prevention works,” considerable challenges remain in strengthening program effects as well as scaling up programs and extending their reach and penetration to diverse populations who experience serious disparities in mental health prevention services. To meet these challenges the Center for Personalized Prevention Research (CPPR) strives to become a one-of-a-kind national resource for investigators, practitioners, consumers and policy-makers through the application of the most advanced concepts and innovations in precision healthcare.
The MISSION of the CPPR is to advance children’s mental health with innovative approaches in precision healthcare that inform the development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of preventive interventions for high risk youth and families. CPPR intends to pursue this mission by means of:
- Identifying malleable mechanisms of change (i.e., mediators) by which preventive interventions effectively influence positive outcomes and inform the identification of predictors of intervention success (i.e., moderators) that can be used to tailor interventions to the unique needs and preferences of high risk youth.
- Adding innovative tailoring technologies that can be used to develop personalized interventions, including flexible design adaptations of existing evidence-based programs, novel delivery system technologies such as mobile devises and lifestyle trackers, and consumer-controlled preference approaches augmented with decision aids.
- Develop and test strategies and supports for effective implementation and sustainment of personalized preventive interventions in formal and informal community practice settings that serve diverse, underserved high risk youth, including benefit-cost analyses to facilitate uptake and support for investing in prevention by funders and policy-makers.
The VISION of the CPPR is to contribute scientific advances in the prevention of mental illnesses and health-compromising behaviors such as drug abuse that pave the way to a world in which children can become happy, healthy and productive people.