ENCORES

The project team proposes “ENgagement in clinical COmparative effectiveness and patient centered outcomes Research findings to Enhance mental health Services and outcomes in disaster-at-risk communities (ENCORES),” two stakeholder conferences for community members, agency leaders, subject experts, and concerned citizens in disaster-prone and affected communities in Southeast Louisiana, specifically in New Orleans and the Coastal Region. This event will serve as a platform to disseminate emerging and established findings from previous and current research efforts, exchange information, and explore issues and areas of knowledge as they relate to community-partnered research and comparative effectiveness research (CER) efforts focused on mental health in the context of disaster preparedness and recovery and community resilience. Academic and community partners from three projects will share results from each study, perspectives as study participants and/or community investigators, and the importance and efficacy of community-partnered research.

Community-partnered and CER project results to be discussed include results, research strategies, and best practices from:

• Community Partners in Care (CPIC), a PCORI-funded community-level CER project that demonstrated the efficacy and sustainable impact of coalition building and collaboration among community agencies on social determinants of health and mental health outcomes in underserved communities.
• The PCORI Pipeline to Proposal Initiative Tier 3 Awardee NOLA Partnership for Mental Health is a New Orleans-based partnership involving community stakeholders, patients, and others who seek to improve services and outcomes for those affected by severe mental illness and co-occurring social determinants of health.
• The National Academies of Sciences-funded Community Resilience Learning Collaborative and Research Network (C-LEARN), a dual-level community-partnered CER project focused on individual and community resilience in mental health and disaster preparedness and recovery.

These three projects are linked by the Community and Patient Partnered Research Network (CPPRN), a joint effort between New Orleans and Los Angeles project partners to create a community-partnered mental and behavioral health research infrastructure. The CPPRN is built on a decades-long partnership in research activities founded in community-partnered participatory research.