A photo of a woman and a boy sitting in chairs across from a man writing on a clip board.
Psychology professor Bryce D. McLeod, Ph.D., was awarded a four-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study youth mental health treatment. (Getty Images)

Dec. 12, 2024

VCU professor Bryce McLeod receives $1.8M federal grant for research into youth mental health care

The psychology researcher’s study will delve into measurement-based care and how clinicians deliver it.

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By Sian Wilkerson

Virginia Commonwealth University psychology professor Bryce D. McLeod has received a $1.8 million federal grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to assess and optimize a treatment practice related to youth mental health.

Measurement-based care uses repeated measurements to track a patient’s progress and inform treatment decisions. McLeod, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychology in VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences, said MBC is considered an evidence-based clinical practice for treating mental health issues in youths, but “poor fidelity – the extent to which clinicians deliver the core practices of measurement-based care – decreases its public health impact for youth and their families.”

A photo of a man from the shoulders up.
Bryce McLeod, Ph.D., is a psychology professor in VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences. (Photo provided by Bryce McLeod)

McLeod and collaborator Amanda Jensen-Doss, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of Miami, were awarded the four-year grant to support their MBC research. The division is part of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Their project aims to pinpoint ways to optimize the effectiveness of mental health care, with the long-term goal of determining how best to train mental health clinicians to deliver MBC.

Using existing data from the Community Study of Outcome Monitoring for Emotional Disorders in Teens – a randomized effectiveness trial comparing two MBC conditions – McLeod and Jensen-Doss will define and evaluate the continuum of MBC fidelity domains; assess the impact of MBC fidelity on target mechanisms and youth clinical outcomes; and evaluate the utility of pragmatic MBC fidelity indicators (such as self-report and digital usage data).

The project dovetails with others conducted by McLeod’s CREATE Lab, which engages in research focused on improving the effectiveness and sustainment of evidence-based practices delivered in community settings for youth experiencing mental health problems.