WCU nursing faculty member receives $840K grant for research consortium
Caitlin Torrence, professor in 甜瓜视频app鈥檚 School of Nursing, recently received an $840,000 grant to fund a Health Policy Research Consortium over the next two years.
The consortium, made up of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University, and the WNC Health Network, will conduct research within the community targeted around four focus areas: mental health, food security, substance abuse and housing.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not to say that we鈥檙e not going to do research in other areas, but those are the areas that our universities came together and said are a really important piece of improving health,鈥� said Torrence.
To address the unique challenges that the region faces when serving the needs of those affected by those target areas, Torrence will leverage her existing relationships with a wide range of groups that will serve on an advisory committee. These groups range from county health departments to local food banks and local nonprofits. Torrence will be working with these groups to pursue, inform, and design the studies that the consortium will be conducting.
鈥淭he different research projects that we have going on right now are informed by our collaboration with the community partners,鈥� Torrence said. 鈥淭he Department on Aging and the Area Agency on Aging want to be heavily involved, so I am going to have caregivers help design the survey and lead interviews.
Torrence is collaborating with a wide array of WCU faculty in order to address the wide array of challenges, while conducting specific research projects within the consortium.
Kia Asberg and Courtney Rogers from WCU鈥檚 Department of Psychology are helping Torrence conduct research on other priority areas.
Rogers, assistant professor of psychology, noted some of the unique challenges that therapists and counselors of the region face.
鈥淚f you think about the number of therapists that we have in the area, especially people who are competent to provide evidence-based treatments for some of these more intensive psychological disorders, there's just not a lot available,鈥� Rogers said. 鈥淔or folks who are available, maybe they have a really long wait list or they are not able to take on a lot of clients who don't have insurance.鈥�
In addition, individuals who may be unable to drive to receive care in person may not live in an area with reliable internet or phone service to receive care via telehealth.
To help meet regional needs in areas such as substance abuse, training WCU students on the issues that they will face upon graduating and entering the workforce will help expand the capacity and in which services can be provided.
Kia Asberg, professor and head of the Department of Psychology stressed that meeting these growing demands are more than just increasing the workforce qualified to treat addiction. It is also expanding support to individuals providing those services.
鈥淚t's a two-pronged approach of expanding services but also making sure that when we do, that it doesn't all land on the backs of those providers,鈥� Asberg said.
Once the research on how best to meet these needs is conducted, the HPRC plans to identify and connect with individuals with the ability to make decisions that can have a lasting impact.
In order to better allocate resources and provide nuanced approaches to effectively meet community needs, the consortium will continue to leverage its relationships within the community. Sharing their research findings with leaders of local non-profits, health departments, and caregivers within the community, could arm them with information to broaden their impact.
Eventually, Torrence and her team may even share their findings with state and local legislators. But Torrence stressed that the change she is seeking to bring about will be from the ground up.
鈥淣othing that we do will go before anyone before the people that we have collaborated with have seen it and say, 鈥榶es, you've got the right interpretation, you've understood what we've told,鈥欌�� Torrence said.
鈥淭he overall goal here is to improve the well-being of our region,鈥� Asberg said. 鈥淯sing data to both inform what we're doing, and to circle back and make things better for the future.鈥�