Yale Department of Psychiatry researchers have been awarded a three-year federal grant to establish the Partnered Evaluation of Relationship Health Innovations and Services through Mixed Methods (PRISM) Initiative.
Galina Portnoy, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, is the principal investigator on the PRISM Initiative, a $1.63 million grant supported by the Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) and VA’s Care Management and Social Work Service Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program (IPVAP).
PRISM is a rigorous and robust partnered evaluation initiative to evaluate the implementation and impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) screening and response across all Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities in the country.
IPV, including physical, sexual, and psychological aggression against a current or former partner, is a complex public health crisis with far-reaching consequences. The healthcare system plays an integral role in the detection and treatment of IPV through implementation of IPV screening and provision of relationship health resources. Although the majority of IPV screening and response initiatives have targeted women of reproductive age, best practices are needed to optimize IPV screening and response among veterans of all genders and ages and support implementation of these practices.
The PRISM Initiative seeks to support:
- VA’s national rollout of IPV screening and response to all veterans;
- Evaluation of implementation and impact of the expanded IPV screening and response;
- Optimization of future IPV screening and response implementation strategies.
Portnoy is director of the IPV Center for Implementation, Research, and Evaluation (IPV-CIRE) located in the Pain, Research, Informatics, Multimorbidities, and Education (PRIME) Center, a VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center of Innovation (COIN).
Portnoy’s co-investigators from Yale are Steve Martino, PhD; Cynthia Brandt, MD, MPH; Mark Relyea, PhD; and Candice Presseau, PhD; as well as Melissa Dichter, PhD from Temple University, and Katherine Iverson, PhD from Boston University.