Harnessing implementation science to study stress management for correctional officers in jail settings - PROJECT SUMMARY The purpose of this K01 Mentored Research Scientist Career Development award is to support Dr. Margaret Gorvine's current trajectory toward independent investigator status—via achieving the study aims and training goals to extend innovative research in the arenas of implementation science, integrative health, and criminal justice. Dr. Gorvine is an Instructor/ Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Jail incarceration rates in the United States have tripled since the 1980s. More than 3,100 jails nationwide serviced 10.8 million jail admissions in 2018. Jail correctional officers (COs) are responsible for maintaining security and supervising detainees in facilities that are often low-resourced (e.g. funding, staffing shortages), are overcrowded, and replete with health risk exposures (e.g. Covid-19). Therefore, COs experience high levels of stress due to violence and low autonomy. The high risk of adverse mental health outcomes and health disparities among COs necessitates addressing CO stress management in jail settings. The study will use an evidence-based quality improvement (EBQI) method to achieve the first 2 aims including: 1) identifying barriers and facilitators to implementing a stress management intervention for correctional officers in a jail setting through formative evaluation (e.g. in-depth qualitative interviews with key jail stakeholders); 2) developing an implementation strategy package and intervention modifications. Thirdly, conduct a pilot hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation trial of the stress management intervention for correctional officers at the jail, measuring implementation outcomes of acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, and fidelity of the intervention and the implementation strategy package. The training goals of the K01 Mentored Research Scientist Career Development award include: 1) developing expertise in implementation research methods related to intervention delivery in jails; 2) enhance skills in community-engaged research with partners within criminal justice settings; 3) learning how to build community-engaged partnerships in the jail; 4) developing expertise in evidence-based mind-body intervention delivery and research; and 5) Increase biostatistics expertise to be fully informed for in-depth collaboration with biostatisticians.
