Heather J Gotham

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Stanford University School of Medicine

Students exposed to school violence are at risk for adverse short- and long-term impacts on physical and psychological well-being. Behavioral threat assessment (BTA) is a strategy used to identify, assess, and manage student threats to mitigate the risk of violence. However, anecdotal BTA cases have highlighted how BTA processes can negatively impa...

Educators and school staff are critical to recognizing and supporting students' mental health, but frequently do not have the training to confidently bring mental health literacy into the classroom or assist students who experience distress. Moreover, few free, easily accessible trainings are available for this audience. Classroom Well‐being Inform...

Objective: This report summarizes results from a national survey that aimed to assess the training and technical assistance needs of individuals who work in mental health. Methods: A survey was distributed to mental health workers by 10 regional centers of a large, nationwide, federally funded training and technical assistance network during Jan...

The use of telehealth in behavioral healthcare increased significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and remains high even as a return to in-person care is now feasible. The use of telehealth is a promising strategy to increase access to behavioral healthcare for underserved and all populations. Identifying opportunities to improve the p...

Recent implementation science frameworks highlight the role of training and technical assistance (TTA) in building workforce capacity to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs). However, evaluation of TTA is limited. We describe three case examples that highlight TTA by three regional centers in the national Mental Health Technology Transfer Cent...

Temporary regulatory changes early in the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated telehealth use, but with an increased return to in-person care in some settings, understanding provider attitudes about the practice and benefits of telehealth may help to inform policy and practice. This mixed methods study seeks to identify areas of training needed for effect...

Learning collaboratives are increasingly used in behavioral health. They generally involve bringing together teams from different organizations and using experts to educate and coach the teams in quality improvement, implementing evidence-based practices, and measuring the effects. Although learning collaboratives have demonstrated some effectivene...

Background: Given substance use disorders (SUDs) among people with HIV are highly prevalent, integrating SUD services within HIV service settings is needed to help end the HIV epidemic. In this study, we assessed the setting-intervention fit (SIF) of 9 evidence-based SUD interventions: acamprosate, disulfiram, oral naltrexone, injectable naltrexon...

Background: To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded Technology Transfer Centers had to rapidly adapt to ensure that the behavioral health workforce had continuous access to remote training and technical assistance (TTA). Although the Technology Transfer Centers have historically rel...

Although HIV and substance use disorders (SUDs) constitute a health syndemic, no research to date has examined the perceived negative impacts of different SUDs for people with HIV (PWH). In May 2019, 643 stakeholders in the U.S., representing clients of AIDS service organizations (ASOs), ASO staff, and HIV/AIDS Planning Council members, participate...

Objective Critical gaps exist between implementation effective interventions and the actual services delivered to people living with mental disorders. Many technical assistance (TA) efforts rely on one-time trainings of clinical staff and printed guidelines that alone are not effective in changing clinical practice. The Mental Health Technology Tra...

COVID-19 social distancing policies have triggered a historic shift in the delivery of behavioral health prevention and treatment services. Among the first responders to this monumental workforce development challenge were the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded Technology Transfer Centers (TTCs), which are charged with...

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected people with HIV due to disruptions in prevention and care services, economic impacts, and social isolation. These stressors have contributed to worse physical health, HIV treatment outcomes, and psychological wellness. Psychological sequelae associated with COVID-19 threaten the overall well-being of peo...

Background: In this opioid overdose epidemic, women are an overlooked group seeing increasing rates of overdose death. Implementation challenges have prevented evidence-based interventions from effectively reaching women who misuse opioids, with gaps in access to effective treatment and services. Family planning clinics could serve as important poi...

Background Substance use disorders (SUDs) among people with HIV are both prevalent and problematic. The Substance Abuse Treatment to HIV care project was funded to test the Implementation and Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) strategy as an adjunct to the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) strategy for integrating a motivational interviewing-...

Background Substance use disorders (SUD) among people with HIV are both prevalent and problematic. In 2014, the Substance Abuse Treatment to HIV care (SAT2HIV) Project was funded to test the team-focused Implementation & Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) strategy as an adjunct to the staff-focused Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) strategy f...

Background Substance use disorders (SUD) among people with HIV are both prevalent and problematic. In 2014, the Substance Abuse Treatment to HIV care (SAT2HIV) Project was funded to test the team-focused Implementation & Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) strategy as an adjunct to the staff-focused Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) strategy f...

Although substance use has negative health effects on women, especially during the reproductive years, family planning practices in which nurse practitioners are key care providers, generally do not adequately screen and intervene for alcohol and drugs. Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) can limit the effects of substa...

Every year in the United States, young infants die from pertussis. The incidence of pertussis among infants exceeds that of all other age groups. Protection is only available if the mother receives the tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine during pregnancy, providing passive immunity to the infant. Infants with pertussis whose...

Upon publication of the original article.

Background: Although the individual and public health consequences of alcohol and drug use are substantial, nursing education programs generally lack content on addiction. The goal of this evaluation was to compare the initial outcomes of on-site versus distance methods for training graduate nurse practitioner students in Screening, Brief Interven...

Background: In 2010, the first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States was released and included three goals: (1) reducing the number of people who become infected with HIV, (2) increasing access to care and improving health outcomes for people living with HIV, and (3) reducing HIV-related health disparities and health inequ...

Background: Improving the extent to which evidence-based practices (EBPs)-treatments that have been empirically shown to be efficacious or effective-are integrated within routine practice is a well-documented challenge across numerous areas of health. In 2014, the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded a type 2 effectiveness-implementation hybrid...

This paper presents the findings of a study that integrated reflective journaling into an interprofessional primary care clinical rotation to evaluate student experiences with the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies. Student teams consisting of students from three different health profession programs (advanced practic...

Most nursing programs lack curriculum on substance use. This project evaluated 3 didactic instructional methods for teaching baccalaureate nursing students about screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment for substance use. In-person, asynchronous narrated slides and interactive online instructional methods were all effective in devel...

Objective: Substantial funds are being invested into training health professions students to provide screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for substance use, but will the newly trained workforce be ahead of its future employers? The goal of this study was to explore implementation facilitators and barriers. Methods: This...

Along with calls to train nurse practitioners to be full partners in healthcare and lead interprofessional collaborative practice teams, there have been calls to enhance health professions education to develop transformative learning experiences, teach the ability to critically observe patients and capture their narrative experience of health, and...

Background Most health-care professional training programs lack educational curricula on substance use disorders and strategies for early intervention or referral to treatment. The University of Missouri-Kansas City Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (UMKC-SBIRT) training project educates baccalaureate nursing, advanced practic...

Although Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an effective early intervention when used across healthcare settings, its implementation has been difficult, in part because of lack of training, healthcare providers' feelings of low self-efficacy in performing SBIRT, and negative attitudes about people who use alcohol an...

The Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire (AAPPQ) is a multi-dimensional measure of clinicians' attitudes toward working with patients with alcohol problems. In the past 35 years, five- and six-subscale versions and a short version of the AAPPQ have been published. While the reliability of the AAPPQ subscales has remained acceptable...

Preparing nursing students to apply an evidence-based screening and brief intervention approach with patients has the potential to reduce patients' risky alcohol and drug use. Responding to Mollica, Hyman, and Mann's article published in 2011, the current article describes implementation results of an Addiction Training for Nurses program of Screen...

Background: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) can reduce alcohol use and negative health outcomes in patients with risky substance use. However, negative attitudes that some health care professionals have toward patients who use substances are a barrier to implementing SBIRT. Methods: The University of Pittsburgh S...

The Dual Diagnosis Capability in Mental Health Treatment (DDCMHT) Index was developed to assess the capability of mental health programs to provide substance abuse and co-occurring treatment services. The DDCMHT is an objective scale rated following a site visit that includes semi-structured interviews with staff at all levels, review of program do...

Despite increased awareness of the benefits of integrated services for persons with co-occurring substance use and psychiatric disorders, estimates of the availability of integrated services vary widely. The present study utilized standardized measures of program capacity to address co-occurring disorders, the dual diagnosis capability in addiction...

Background: An academic-community partnership was created to integrate education and training on the evidence-based practice of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for substance use into the undergraduate nursing curriculum at a major research university. The purpose of this paper is to: 1) describe an 11-module addictio...

Background and Issues: In the USA, drug and alcohol abuse is responsible for over $600 billion in health, productivity, and crime-related costs. Nurses need specific knowledge and skills to address the estimated 23.1 million persons aged 12 or older who need treatment for an alcohol and/or other drug (AOD) related problem. Description: An innovativ...

The transfer of new technologies (e.g., evidence-based practices) into substance abuse treatment organizations often occurs long after they have been developed and shown to be effective. Transfer is slowed, in part, due to a lack of clear understanding about all that is needed to achieve full implementation of these technologies. Such misunderstand...

The Dual Diagnosis Capability in Addiction Treatment and the Dual Diagnosis Capability in Mental Health Treatment indexes were used to document change in the capability of 14 substance abuse and mental health agencies to provide services to clients with co-occurring substance use and mental disorders (COD). COD capability significantly increased ov...

Victimization is regarded as a significant public health issue, especially among adolescents in urban areas. Although victimization is linked to substance use, the research on victimization among adolescents in treatment is underdeveloped. Given the high rate of victimization among African-American adolescents, further research on the prevalence an...

Similar to implementing an evidence-based practice (EPB), implementing an evidence-based assessment (EBA) is a long, complex process that can take several years to complete. Between 2002 and 2007, the state of Missouri first piloted the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs-Initial (GAIN-I; Dennis et al. 2006) assessment at one state-contracted adol...

How does an individual practitioner, agency, or treatment system get from making a decision or being mandated to adopt an evidence-based practice (EBP) to successfully implementing and using the EBP? Research and theory on factors that help or hinder putting new treatments into practice focus on individual, organizational, and external levels. Alth...

Reviews the book, Designing, Implementing, and Managing Treatment Services for Individuals With Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: Blueprints for Action by Edward L. Hendrickson (see record 2006-03611-000 ). This book is a welcome addition to the literature that helps to clarify this complicated topic. It succeeds in its goal o...

Theory and research regarding the diffusion of innovations and technology transfer have advanced our understanding of how new ideas and technologies are developed, disseminated, adopted, and implemented by individuals and organizations. Although diffusion has been studied in other fields, it is not often applied to mental health and substance abuse...

Theory and research regarding the diffusion of innovations and technology transfer have advanced our understanding of how new ideas and technologies are developed, disseminated, adopted, and implemented by individuals and organizations. Although diffusion has been studied in other fields, it is not often applied to mental health and substance abuse...

Developmental psychopathologists are increasingly focused on characterizing heterogeneity of trajectories of psychological disorders across the life course (e.g., developmentally limited vs. chronic forms of disorder). Although the developmental significance of trajectories has been highlighted, there has been little attention to relations between...

Relations among young adult alcohol use disorders (AUDs), preadulthood variables (gender, family history of alcoholism, childhood stressors, high-school class rank, religious involvement, neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism) and young adult developmental tasks (baccalaureate degree completion, full-time employment, marriage) were evaluated. Par...

As people in the baby boom generation age, they continue to abuse substances at a greater rate than the previous generation. Substance abuse places many older adults at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS and other infections as a result of risky sexual behavior and injection drug use. This article has four goals: (a) to bring this approaching problem in...

As individuals age beyond the college years into young adulthood, many exhibit a tendency to moderate or "mature out of" alcohol involvement. The current study classified effect-drinking statuses in young adults and examined transitions among statuses using latent transition analysis, a latent variable state-sequential model for longitudinal data....

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2000 RSA Meeting in Denver, Colorado. John Schulenberg and Jennifer L. Maggs were Organizers. Stephen W. Long was Chair and provided opening remarks. The presentations were: (1) I'm not a drunk, just a college student: Binge drinking during college as a developmental disturbance, by John...

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2000 RSA Meeting in Denver, Colorado. John Schulenberg and Jennifer L. Maggs were Organizers. Stephen W. Long was Chair and provided opening remarks. The presentations were: (1) I'm not a drunk, just a college student: Binge drinking during college as a developmental disturbance, by John...

In 1987, we began a longitudinal study of the offspring of alcoholic parents and have been following this group of young adults from their freshman year in college throughout their transition into later young adulthood. The goal of this review is to highlight some of the findings we consider most important and relevant to the development of patholo...

Research has demonstrated that physical activity serves an important preventive function against the development of cardiovascular disease. The recognition that U.S. children are often sedentary, coupled with the observation that physical activity habits tend to persist into adulthood, has prompted the investigation of exercise determinants consist...

The authors examined whether individual-difference variables (e.g., family history of alcoholism, sex, personality traits, positive alcohol expectancies) and role transition-related variables (full-time work status, marital status, parenthood) moderate the "maturing-out" process whereby young adults who drink heavily during college decrease their d...

The authors examined whether individual-difference variables (e.g., family history of alcoholism, sex, personality traits, positive alcohol expectancies) and role transition-related variables (full-time work status, marital status, parenthood) moderate the ''maturing-out'' process whereby young adults who drink heavily during college decrease their...

This study examines the effectiveness of risperidone compared with traditional neuroleptic medications in the areas of clinical functioning and aggressive behaviors in a sample of inpatients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. Similar to the methodology of Menditto et al. (Psychiatr Serv 47:46-51, 1996), two groups of 10 patients were selected fr...

This study examined the extent to which tobacco dependence (TD) and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) reciprocally influenced each other in a mixed-gender sample of 452 individuals (n = 232 biological family history of paternal alcoholism, n = 220 no first- or second-degree family history of alcoholism) who were assessed once early in their freshman yea...

Despite widespread use of the term codependency, empirical evidence regarding its construct validity is generally lacking. This study analyzed the construct validity of codependency as measured by Potter-Efron and Potter-Efron's Codependency Assessment Questionnaire (CAQ). It attempted to determine the CAQ's factor structure and whether there are a...

The longitudinal course of psychological distress, as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory, was examined in a cohort of 457 first-time freshman college students over 4 yearly assessments. Ss reported a clear, steady decline in psychological distress across the 4 years, which appeared more a function of adaptation to school or to the young adult...