Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY)
What is ALACRITY?
The Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Center program aims to support innovative research ideas and collaborations across disciplines that could transform the care of children, adolescents, and adults with serious mental illnesses.
Launched by the NIMH Division of Services and Intervention Research, the ALACRITY research center program is made up of 14 mental health research centers across the country.
The ALACRITY centers conduct research aimed at:
- Increasing the effectiveness of existing interventions
- Improving the delivery and quality of evidence-based services
- Accelerating the implementation and continuous improvement of new practices in diverse, real-world health care settings
Why is ALACRITY a priority for NIMH?
The ALACRITY centers are meant to be a rapid way to transform the treatment of mental illness. These centers allow investigators to focus on research that has the potential for near-term impact.
The centers incorporate features that are intended to speed the translation of research into practice, including:
- Practice-based infrastructure that uses clinical practice settings as a place to develop new research ideas and nimbly test and refine interventions and service delivery strategies
- Transdisciplinary research teams that incorporate new insights and emerging technologies from experts in areas such as behavioral economics; health information and communications technology; and health systems engineering
- A deployment-focused approach that considers the perspectives of groups such as patients, families, providers, and key administrators when developing interventions and service strategies that can be rapidly integrated into practice
What is NIMH’s role?
NIMH provides grants that support the 14 ALACRITY centers. Teams include clinical and mental health services researchers, behavioral and social scientists, health information and communications technologists, health systems engineers, and other specialists.
Each center pursues its own mix of mental health services research and/or research to refine and improve preventive and therapeutic interventions. The centers focus on a range of populations and span a variety of settings where services are delivered. Importantly, they all prioritize innovating on behalf of the needs and perspectives of patients and other stakeholders such as families and caregivers.
The ALACRITY centers include:
- Transforming Mental Health Delivery Through Behavioral Economics and Implementation Science
- ALACRITY for Late and Mid-Life Mood Disorders
- Optimizing and Personalizing Interventions for Schizophrenia Across the Lifespan (OPAL)
- UW ALACRITY Center for Psychosocial Interventions Research
- Center for Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergency Suicidality (ETUDES) in Pediatric Primary Care
- Center to Accelerate Translation of Interventions to Decrease Premature Mortality in Severe Mental Illness
- Laboratory for Early Psychosis Research (LEAP)
- Accelerator Strategies in States to Improve System Transformations Affecting Children, Youth, and Families
- Technology-Enabled Services for Coordinated Care of Depression in Health Care Settings
- ALACRITY for Early Screening and Treatment of High-Risk Youth (eSToRY)
- Center for Perioperative Mental Health
- Optimizing Evidence-Based Practice Implementation for Clinical Impact: the IMPACT Center
- Screening, Tracking, and Treatment for Anxiety and Depression in Community Colleges
- Center for Team Effectiveness to Accelerate EBP Implementation in Children’s Mental Health Services
In 2020, NIMH launched a related center program for Practice-based Suicide Prevention Research Centers. Like the ALACRITY Centers, these new suicide prevention research centers address research with the potential for near-term impact and incorporate features intended to speed the translation of research into practice.
Please note that the NIH RePORTER links listed above are for the initial year of the Centers’ currently funded project period. The Center for Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality (ETUDES) in Pediatric Primary Care was initially funded as an ALACRITY Center, but it was subsequently renewed under the program for Practice-based Suicide Prevention Research Centers.
Contact information
For additional information on ALACRITY, please contact Joel Sherrill, Ph.D., deputy director, NIMH Division of Services and Intervention Research.
Learn more about ALACRITY
Additional Resources
Science News and Research Highlights
- Mental Health Research Centers Forge Collaborations with ALACRITY
- Transforming Mental Health Care Through ALACRITY
Last Reviewed: November 2022