Current Research Projects

This project aims to rigorously compare the treatment, health, recovery, and justice outcomes of participants in the Opioid Intervention Court (OIC) to those in a traditional drug treatment court. Results from this study will answer key questions related to the translation of the nation’s first “public health court” and will inform future practice and policy to address the ongoing opioid crisis by infusing public health into the public safety and justice system.

Using novel analytic methods with systemwide Health Information Exchange (HIE) data, we will explore new risk factors relevant to Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCCs) in older adults. This pilot study is also using a participatory patient-care partner approach to gain insight on MCC patient experiences and ensure the relevance of risk factors developed for future patient-provider interactions.  

This project will conduct a 10-year cohort study of 38,000 residents of Tonawanda and Grand Island to examine the health effects of industrial environmental pollutants.

With an interdisciplinary team, including but not limited to biochemists, epidemiologists, mathematicians, and computer scientists, we aim to develop and implement a robust system to detect signs of a potential pandemic in our environment and within our populations. Early detection is key to responding to public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic quickly, effectively, and thoughtfully as a community. This requires true partnership and trust among researchers, public health officials, government, and the public. We actively, continuously engage and partner with members of diverse community groups to directly inform each other and provide feedback about what changes in the community should be monitored as part of this predictive system. We consider the unique needs of different communities in the event of a future pandemic to promote community strengths and proactively allocate resources. 

With the overall goal of expanding and enhancing both the existing and upcoming public health workforce, this project has several aims. First, we will offer specialized training with newly-developed or enhanced existing curriculums to increase the skills and competencies of community health workers (CHWs) and health support workers, while offering financial support to offset expenses that would impede success in training. Second, we will improve CHW employment readiness and opportunities by facilitating apprenticeships within a network of partnerships. Third, this project will advance health equity and support for underserved communities by increasing the number of CHWs and health support workers that are employed in integrated care teams that use their expanded skills to reduce health disparities. PCRI will be involved in curriculum development for CHWs and the evaluation of the program.

This project works to translate known medication safety evidence into practice for frail elders through system-based interventions that address fragmentation through a variety of innovative strategies for providers to initiate deprescribing of inappropriate medications. Such a focus on patient- or caregiver-initiated deprescribing conversations with their doctors has never before been funded or attempted in the United States.

This project enhances case management capacity to accelerate linkage to MAT services and trauma informed services, particularly for those with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental illness which are often common in low-income minority communities. We employ the MISSION-CJ (Maintaining Independence and Sobriety through Systems Integration, Outreach, and Networking - Criminal Justice) recovery support model. 

This VA-funded proposal aims to develop a multipronged program of education and technical assistance to support approximately 110 PCMHI providers with implementation of Brief CBT-CP in their local primary care clinics. Training PCMHI providers to use Brief CBT-CP has the potential to significantly extend the reach of behavioral intervention for chronic pain by making it readily available in primary care. Evaluation of this program will provide insight into the value and impact of our training program approach in terms of both provider and patient outcomes that could be replicated in subsequent fiscal years.

This program will plan, develop and deliver trainings to health care students, residents, professionals, paraprofessionals, trainees, public safety officers and employers of such individuals throughout New York state in rural and medically underserved areas. These trainings will utilize evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies designed to reduce and address burnout, suicide, mental health conditions, and substance use disorders, as well as promote resiliency.

The primary goal of this grant is to reduce substance use among youth and, over time, reduce substance abuse among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse. We will accomplish this by strengthening collaboration among communities, public and private non-profit agencies, and federal, state, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance use among youth.

Serving as an extension to the strategic action plan of the Drug-Free Community Coalition grant, funds for this project will be used to prevent and reduce alcohol use among youth and adults aged 12-20 years. This grant seeks to reduce opportunities for underage drinking while also limiting access to alcohol and expanding enforcement opportunities.

Hope of Erie County will use a Critical Time Intervention (CTI) approach to coordinate care and services for justice involved individuals who are identified as high risk with regard to physical and behavioral health care needs (i.e., individuals with co-occurring and/or multiple morbidities). Hope of Erie County will work with clients to identify relevant focus areas, provide linkages to formal and informal support systems, and gradually taper back case management as linkages become stable and enduring. We expect this process will generate improved health outcomes, better integrated health care, and reduced institutionalization including incarceration and hospitalization.

This project seeks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local drug treatment courts in Western New York, through the lens of how the sudden introduction of remote technology and pivot to teleservices affected operations. Researchers conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with court personnel, representatives from community treatment agencies, and substance use peer advocates to understand their perspectives on remote technology in the drug courts.

This project works to reduce the number of opioid overdose fatalities by training and supplying first responders and enhancing the connection of first responder rescues to follow-up treatment. The Erie County, NY Department of Health (ECDOH) conducts trainings for first responders and community members on naloxone administration and has distributed naloxone throughout Western New York through numerous channels, including trainings, a Text-for-Narcan line, and wall-mounted boxes that organizations and businesses can keep on their premises as an emergency supply of naloxone.

The New York State Area Health Education Center (NYS AHEC) was founded by the UB Department of Family Medicine, and PCRI is home to the statewide office of the NYS AHEC system. NYS AHEC enhances access to quality health care across New York. It was created to improve health care outcomes by addressing the health workforce needs of medically disadvantaged communities and populations through partnerships between the institutions that train a diverse, culturally competent primary care workforce and the communities that need them most.  

Operation: SAFETY is a longitudinal research study which will examine the health and well-being of U.S. Army Reserve/National Guard soldiers and their partners. The purpose of Phase 1 was to explore how reserve soldiers and their partners impact each others’ physical and mental well-being. The knowledge gained from the study can be used to help design interventions that improve the physical and mental well-being of military reserve soldiers and their families. Phase 2 will continue the work of Phase 1, but we will also examine experiences with non-deployment and separation from the military. 

This program develops and implements an advanced training program for currently-practicing primary care providers to become leaders of health care transformation and education, with a special emphasis on population health approaches to addiction medicine.

BestSelf Behavioral Health will expand its treatment services in Erie County's two jails and provide community-based treatment services in a newly established reentry support center in downtown Buffalo called the Service Link Stop (SLS). The goal is to increase the number of participants receiving medication assisted treatment (MAT) as well as cognitive behavioral intervention-based SUD and reentry services. This initiative serves individuals who are released from jails as they transition back to the community, and pre-trial clients and probation clients from Erie County Probation who may have been briefly detained in regional lock-ups and then were released by the courts directly to probation.

The primary aims of this grant program are to expand naloxone distribution to and use by law enforcement officers, as well as implement a mechanism to remotely refer opioid overdose victims and those with a history of opioid overdose to the emergency room for MAT treatment initiation. From there, a team of substance use peers leverages the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) to follow up with those seen in the emergency room and attempt to link them to longer-term community treatment agencies and follow up with those already linked to such resources.

This project seeks to enhance and expand an existing Erie County, NY Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model for pre-booking diversion of adults with co-occurring disorders in partnership with police departments and treatment networks. We aim to increase the number of individuals experiencing a crisis due to serious mental illness who are diverted from the criminal justice system and towards community-based treatment resources, as well as the number of law enforcement officers trained in CIT practices. Diverted individuals receive long-term case management care, and behavioral health outcomes are tracked over the duration of their involvement with the program.

This initiative expands referrals and enhances substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and family support services in the Erie County Family Treatment Drug Court (FTDC) to better address the crisis of opioid addiction, accelerate the activation of multi-system treatment linkages, address children and parents together, and improve family reunification rates.

This project adapts the MISSION-CJ evidence-based practice by fully integrating behavioral and medical treatment for jail inmates with criminogenic risk, and substance abuse and mental health needs.

This project centers around the planning and implementation of the enhancement and expansion of cross-system collaboration in Erie County to improve public safety responses and outcomes for individuals with mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders who come into contact with the justice system.

This research project investigates the experiences of pregnant and parenting women who are also dealing with substance use disorder and justice system involvement. These women face multiple health-related and social structural challenges compounded by stigma. This study addresses the research gap by examining women’s experiences in the justice system in relation to motherhood and recovery from substance use. Findings from this initial exploratory study will be used to develop a larger NIH-funded study and to inform clinical practice and public health policy. 

This project supports the expansion of capacity and access to an evidence-based care coordination model (MISSION-CJ with rapid MAT transport) in the Opioid Intervention Court. We also will expand the capacity of the court over five years.  

This five-year program aims to strengthen the primary care workforce. Specifically, this program will train Family Medicine residents in the prevention, identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral of services for mental and behavioral health conditions. The primary focus is on the pediatric, adolescent, young adult, and other populations who are at-risk for or have experienced abuse, trauma, or mental health and/or substance use disorders, including those related to the effects of gun violence.

The UB Faculty Scholar Program in Implementation Science is an institutional research career development (K12) program that supports mentored research and career development for faculty scholars in dissemination and implementation (D&I) research to address the complex process of bridging research and practice in real-world settings.