Depression Grand Challenge

The Depression Grand Challenge is conducting a series of research studies at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to optimize the effectiveness and implementation of STAND in a traditionally underserved community college student population and explore pathways for sustainability and spread to other community colleges.

These STAND at ELAC research projects build off experience from the DGC's STAND at ELAC demonstration project funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, which offered STAND as a service to ELAC students from 2021-2023. Research projects were introduced at ELAC in 2022.

Signature project (sub-project: 5337): Finding & adapting the level of care. The STAND program approach involves three levels of care, and level of care is determined based upon responses to specific surveys regarding symptoms. In the signature project, we compare two different methods of determining and adapting to the appropriate level of care for each individual within STAND. Findings from this study may enable us to develop and implement better ways of providing personalized care in the future. (PIs: Craske & Taylor)

Project 1 (sub-project 5338): Increasing uptake of STAND. This project is designed to solicit student input iteratively across four years to develop and test engagement interventions that maximize recruitment and initial uptake of STAND at ELAC. (PI: Chavira)

Project 2 (sub-project 5339): Increasing uptake of STAND digital mental health program with coaching. This project examines treatment engagement, treatment satisfaction, symptoms, and functioning outcomes among Latinx students at ELAC receiving digital program with peer coaching in the STAND program to see what factors might increase engagement and improve outcomes. (PI: Taylor)

Project 3 (sub-project 5340): Prevent suicide and self-harm. This project seeks to: 1) enhance risk detection and provide opportunities to deliver “just-in-time” interventions to prevent suicidal/self-harm episodes; 2) evaluate the effectiveness of STAND with treatment tier/level assigned and adapted based on data-driven algorithms, as compared to symptom severity, on suicide/self-harm outcomes; and 3) enhance the effectiveness of STAND for suicide/self-harm prevention by augmenting STAND with a technology-enhanced suicide prevention intervention that combines intervention components with demonstrated benefits in prior research.

Pilot projects: In addition to the four above research projects, each year, the Center invests a pilot projects proposed by UCLA-based early career researchers.