MaryBeth Gallagher

July 2024 - June 2025
Project Description: The project team will partner with adults with severe mental illness (SMI), caregivers and community mental health providers to engage in collaborative, participatory research with three related aims: 1. To identify and understand the living skill and sensory health needs of adults with SMI. 2. To develop interventions, and materials that support and ultimately improve the sensory health and community integration of adults with SMI. 3. To develop a feasible and acceptable living skills screen for community behavioral health providers modified accordingly, based on engaged research with all partners. The overall goal is to support the successful integration of people with SMI into the community.
Project Funding: Bass Connections, Duke University
Project Budget: $25,000
Project Period: 07/01/2024 – 06/30/2025
Role: Project Team Leader

Life After Stroke: A Sensory Health Initiative

July 2022 - June 2023
Project description: This project team will partner with expert stakeholders, including adults post- stroke, caregivers, clinicians and researchers to address two related aims: (1) Identify the critical sensory health needs of adults post-stroke and specific knowledge gaps. For priority topics of interest, team members will perform and publish scoping reviews of the literature and develop and disseminate resources to the public; and (2) identify research questions and study protocols to explore the impact of the identified sensory health needs on the recovery and participation in meaningful activities of daily living. The team will develop a grant proposal to fund the study protocols. The long-term goal is to develop interventions and materials that support and ultimately improve the sensory health of stroke survivors.
Project Funding: Bass Connections, Duke University
Project Budget: $25,000
Project Period: 07/01/2023 – 06/30/2024
Role: Project Team Leader

Fellowships, Gifts, and Supported Research

Community Living With Mental Illness: A Sensory Health Initiative · August 1, 2024 - May 31, 2025 Project Leader · Awarded by: Duke Bass Connections · $23,000.00 Background The U.S. Department of Justice has entered a settlement agreement with the state of North Carolina for failing to provide mental health services in the least restrictive environment as required by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Olmstead v. L.C. As part of the settlement, the state is engaged in widespread efforts to transition adults with serious mental illness to independent living. Living independently in the community requires stable housing. Obtaining and maintaining stable housing requires mastery of many activities of daily living necessary for successful home management (e.g., bill paying, cooking, shopping, managing transportation). Individuals with severe mental illness often experience significant cognitive and sensory processing challenges that prevent them from successfully completing activities of daily living necessary for maintaining a home. Supporting the activities of daily living of adults with severe mental illness should be a high priority in policy change. However, there is no existing evidence-based tool to screen adults in this community for challenges with these activities which are needed to identify intervention targets relevant to their independent living and community integration. There is an urgent need to develop a living-skills screen so community mental health providers across the state can quickly identify which supports are needed for their clients. Further, there is a gap in resources to help stakeholders support the functional independence and sensory health of adults with severe mental illness. Project Description The project team will partner with adults with severe mental illness (SMI), caregivers and community mental health providers to develop interventions and materials that support and ultimately improve the sensory health and community integration of adults with SMI. Team members will engage in collaborative, participatory research to identify and understand the living skill and sensory health needs of adults with SMI. They will then work together to develop and disseminate resources (e.g., website, podcasts, videos) to stakeholders to support the sensory health and independent living skills of adults with SMI in the community. They will also develop a feasible and acceptable living skills screen for community behavioral health providers and modify the screen according to relevant partner feedback.

Life After Stroke: An Inclusive Approach to Addressing Sensory Health Needs · September 2023 - June 2024 Team Leader · Awarded by: Duke Bass Connections This project’s long-term goal is to develop interventions that support the sensory health needs of all stroke survivors. Building on the work of the 2022-2023 team, this team aims to: Identify groups who are underrepresented in stroke research and groups who suffer health inequities in stroke outcomes. Use participatory methods with these groups to modify and enhance the research protocols developed by the previous team. Collaborate with underrepresented groups to improve the accessibility of materials and resources developed by the previous team to be more inclusive of all people. Draft a manuscript to describe this collaborative process for replicability.

Assessing and Creating Classroom Climates that Support Learning through Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging · June 2020 Co-facilitator · Awarded by: Duke Learning Innovation

External Relationships

Center for Community Connection (C4CC)

This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.