Research Projects

Our group conducts research within the health services field, focusing on understanding and providing services to disadvantaged populations, particularly within the veteran population.

We have been working on understanding the characteristics of the homeless population and evaluating the services they need or use. This has included a wide range of topics, from identifying risk factors to examining use of emergency room services to studying subgroups like homeless female veterans.

We have also been interested in evaluating the Housing First model and examining the effects of substance abuse on housing tenure. We have developed and disseminated a group-based model of case management for supported housing, and are particularly interested in how to promote social and community integration for supported housing clients. Recently, we conducted a series of studies estimating the potential effect of the Affordable Care Act, particularly the Medicaid expansion, on the chronically homeless population and veterans. We often work with colleagues at the National Center for Homelessness Among Veterans.

We have a grant from the Bristol Meyers Squibb Foundation to:

1. Understand how legal providers can work within a VA medical setting and build medical-legal partnerships.
2. Evaluate the health effects of providing civil legal services to veterans with mental illness or substance use disorders.

This project involves 4 sites in Connecticut and New York, and we are the lead.

We are conducting two pilot studies of RESTORE™, which is a computerized cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment for insomnia. RESTORE™ has been shown to be effective in several randomized controlled trials, but has not been evaluated on veterans or adults with severe mental illness. We are testing the feasibility and effectiveness of the RESTORE™ program separately for veterans with severe mental illness and veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Working with colleagues from the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, we have been interested in the assessment, classification, and latent structure of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Using confirmatory factor analyses, we have shown that posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms are best represented by 5 factors using DSM-IV criteria and by 6 factors using DSM-5 criteria. These factors have been found to be differentially related to other outcomes of interest, such as physical and mental functioning.

Using latent class analyses, we have examined patterns of comorbid personality disorders with posttraumatic stress disorder and different profiles of adults with posttraumatic stress symptoms. Recently, we have examined the prevalence and correlates of posttraumatic growth and the dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder.