CPS 2009 Distinguished Alumna Receives NIH Grant

NSU Center for Psychological Studies (CPS) alumna Joan M. Cook, Ph.D., (1999) of Yale University is the recent recipient of a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant.

The grant addresses a proposed topic for NIH “Strategies to Support Uptake of Interventions within Clinical Community and Setting.” Cook submitted her grant as part of President Obama’s America Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The grant will implement two evidence-based psychotherapies for treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans. The research team will characterize and assess the implementation of Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Residential PTSD Treatment Programs. PET involves using mental imagery, writing, and other tasks to safely confront fears and feelings associated with trauma. CPT asks veterans to describe their trauma and then the therapist helps to redirect pervasive and destructive thoughts associated with the trauma.

Cook and her colleagues will collaborate with the Northeast Program Evaluation Center, monitoring all Veteran’s Affairs mental health programming and patient outcomes, and the National Center for PTSD, overseeing the dissemination of PET and CPT nationally among Veteran’s Affairs providers.