TACHL-Led Projects

BBN LogoBOUNCE BACK NOW

Bounce Back Now is a smartphone app that is designed to improve access to evidence-based mental health care among victims of natural and technological disasters. Only 1 in 4 individuals who develop mental health problems after disasters receive mental health services. The Bounce Back Now app provides coping tools, brief interventions, symptom tracking resources, and connection to helping professionals. It has been tested in two large clinical trials with over 1,000 adolescents affected by the 2011 tornadoes in Joplin and Alabama as well as over 1,500 adults affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Michael. It is scheduled for public launch in Spring 2021 and will be freely available in English and Spanish to disaster survivors nationally.
Visit Bounce Back Now for more information.

CFFBH LogoCENTER FOR FIREFIGHTER BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

The Center for Firefighter Behavioral Health (CFFBH) houses a series of web- and smartphone-based tools designed to address the behavioral health needs of firefighters and their families. Some of the resources (e.g., Helping Heroes) are designed to be used by behavioral health providers and others (e.g., Firefighters Helping Firefighters, Alcohol Use and Misuse, RIT Tools for Suicide Prevention) are self-help and peer-support tools for firefighter families. These resources are freely available to firefighters, their families, and the behavioral health providers who serve them. We partner with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and First Responders Center of Excellence in these initiatives. The Department of Homeland Security (via FEMA) has funded most of this work.
Visit Center For Firefighter Behavioral Health for more information.

SPARK LogoSUPPORTING PROVIDERS AND REACHING KIDS

The Supporting Providers and Reaching Kids (SPARK) initiative aims to make it easier for mental health providers to deliver best practice treatment to children. SPARK is a web-based platform that houses a collection of games and activities that providers use in session to teach children and their caregivers core concepts and skills that are common elements of cognitive behavioral treatments. It includes touchscreen games, drag-and-drop activities, drawing tools, trivia-style card games, and animated relaxation exercises. It also includes an extensive collection of demonstration videos. We are currently testing the SPARK toolkit with 30 community mental health service agencies. Over 100 providers and 300 families are taking part in the initiative.
Visit Supporting Providers and Reaching Kids for more information.

TRRP LogoTRAUMA RESILIENCE AND RECOVERY PROGRAM

The Trauma Resilience and Recovery Program (TRRP) is a stepped care intervention for patients who have experienced traumatic injury (e.g., serious motor vehicle crashes, motorcycle crashes, gunshot wounds, stabbings, serious falls). More than 20% of these patients develop posttraumatic stress disorder or depression. Trauma centers generally do not offer mental health services in standard care. TRRP aims to change that by providing a cost-efficient, sustainable mental health service model. We have served thousands of patients at the Medical University of South Carolina using this model, and we also recently implemented TRRP in three partnering South Carolina trauma centers.
Visit Trauma Resilience & Recovery Program for more information.

SMASH LogoSMARTPHONE MEDICATION ADHERENCE STOPS HYPERTENSION

SMASH addresses medication non-adherence and blood pressure control in African American adults with the sole diagnosis of hypertension. The long-term objective is to reduce premature mortality among African Americans by developing effective and sustainable mHealth chronic disease medical regimen self-management programs.
SMASH assists patient with medical regimen adherence including medication adherence and more regular home-based blood pressure screenings to ultimately increase health literacy of the patient and provide home-based objective patient data to health care teams on a regular basis to improve clinical inertia and quality of patient care.

TT LogoTENSION TAMER

Tension Tamer is a smartphone delivered breathing awareness meditation program for blood pressure control that was previously tested in prehypertensives. A dose response trial found the best dose regimen to be 10-minute sessions twice a day. Tension Tamer has sense been refined to include wearable technology that continuously monitors heart rate during meditation sessions. Additionally, Tension Tamer has expanded populations to include prehypertensives, Stage 1 hypertensives, Patients with Sarcoidosis with elevated fatigue and caregiver populations. The long-term objective of Tension Tamer is to test and refine an easily disseminated program that will reduce blood pressure and deter transition of pre hypertension to hypertension in a variety of populations.

MUSC Logo

SYMPTOM SELF MANAGEMENT CENTER

The overall goal of the Symptom Self Management Center is to build a critical mass of research thematically focused on targeting symptoms of fatigue and pain through complementary, synergistic research activities. Toward this end, the National Institute on Nursing Research-funded (NINR-P20) Symptom Self Management Center (SSMC) at the College of Nursing, Medical University of South Carolina, provides the infrastructure and context for nurse scientists who will:

  1. Identify groups of patients, who are at risk for chronic disease symptom exacerbation in the areas of fatigue and pain through cutting edge biomedical informatics
  2. Develop effective, scalable and sustainable technology enhanced self management interventions that are accessible to these patients through iterative, patient-centered design approaches
  3. Evaluate these in real world community settings through established community partnerships interventions.