Mental and Behavioral Health Institute

Research

The emotional stresses facing our children and teens have never been higher, and few situations in life are as terrifying as when a child seeks to harm themselves. Rates of autism and developmental disabilities are also at an all time high. We all know we need more answers. That’s why we formed the Mental and Behavioral Health Institute at Cincinnati Children’s.

We are bringing together the nation’s largest team of behavioral, developmental and mental health experts to dig deeper into the most complex challenges in health care. We are discovering better treatments, defining best practices and putting them into action so that all children have access to the high-quality care they need.

Divisions and Centers

As an academic leader, Cincinnati Children’s serves as a model for behavioral, development and mental healthcare providers across the country, a resource for leadership, and an advocate for families regardless of where they live. Patients here have the opportunity to participate in clinical trials, use telehealth technology to consult with experts without the expense of travel, and when necessary, receive inpatient and outpatient care in facilities that feature state-of-the-art capabilities proven through research.

Areas of Interest

• Research focused on early recognition, prevention and intervention of developmental, behavioral and mental health disorders—including those in chronic disease and community-based populations—to prevent disorders from either progressing to diagnosis or escalating in severity level beyond outpatient care.
• Research on the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based developmental, behavioral and mental health care into clinical practice across the care continuum, in the community and academic settings.
• Creation and investigation of advanced behavioral, pharmacological and device therapies for complex disorders.
• Enhanced developmental, behavioral and mental health basic science efforts to complement both clinical research efforts and other strategic research goals (e.g., genomics, organoids).

See how our research and clinical teams lead initiatives that use algorithms to determine who is at risk of self-harm—sometimes earlier than clinicians can detect. With technologies, including the Spreading Activation Mobile (SAM) app for school therapists, we’re able to sift through lots of data to pick up on trends that humans wouldn’t notice, such as shifts in language, speech and emotions that suggest suicidal intent.