Shannon Dorsey

About

Shannon Dorsey is a Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on treatment effectiveness and implementation science, particularly for children and adolescents receiving care in low and under-resourced settings. She has dedicated her work to addressing the mental health treatment gap by training and supporting lay counselors to deliver mental health care in regions with few mental health professionals, emphasizing supervision as an implementation strategy. Dr. Dorsey co-directs the NIMH-funded Center, IMPACT, which aims to optimize mental health care for youth in under-resourced environments. Her work involves strong partnerships and collaborations with communities and practice partners to develop and evaluate evidence-based treatments, such as Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and to implement scalable mental health interventions globally.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Psychiatry
• Computer network
• Surgery
• Public relations
• Engineering ethics
• Environmental health

Selected publications

• Effectiveness of Task-Shifted Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children Who Experienced Parental Death and Posttraumatic Stress in Kenya and Tanzania

  JAMA Psychiatry · 2020 · 124 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Importance: Approximately 140 million children worldwide have experienced the death of one or both parents. These children, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, have higher rates of mental health problems than those who have not experienced parental death. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may improve the well-being of these children, but to our knowledge there have been no randomized clinical trials specifically focused on this population. Objectives: To test the effectiveness of trauma…

  DOI

• Advancing successful implementation of task-shifted mental health care in low-resource settings (BASIC): protocol for a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial

  BMC Psychiatry · 2020 · 74 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: The mental health treatment gap-the difference between those with mental health need and those who receive treatment-is high in low- and middle-income countries. Task-shifting has been used to address the shortage of mental health professionals, with a growing body of research demonstrating the effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered through task-shifting. However, very little research has focused on how to embed, support, and sustain task-shifting in government-funded…

  DOI

• Study protocol: Novel Methods for Implementing Measurement-Based Care with youth in Low-Resource Environments (NIMBLE)

  Implementation Science Communications · 2023-11-28 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: For youth receiving care in community mental health centers, comorbidities are the rule rather than the exception. Using measurement-based care (MBC), or the routine evaluation of symptoms to inform care decisions, as the foundation of treatment for youth with comorbid problems significantly improves the impact of psychotherapy by focusing care and building engagement and alliance. MBC increases the rate of symptom improvement, detects clients who would otherwise deteriorate, and ale…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Harnessing Innovative Technologies to Train Nurses in Suicide Safety Planning With Hospital Patients: Formative Acceptability Evaluation of an eLearning Continuing Education Training

  JMIR Formative Research · 2024-06-15 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. Health care provider training is a top research priority identified by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention; however, evidence-based approaches that target skill building are resource intensive and difficult to implement. Novel computer technologies harnessing artificial intelligence are now available, which hold promise for increasing the feasibility of providing trainees opportunities across a range of…

  PublisherDOI

• A qualitative study of mental health problems among children living in New Delhi slums

  Transcultural Psychiatry · 2024-02-23 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Children living in urban slums in India are exposed to chronic stressors that increase their risk of developing mental disorders, but they remain a neglected group. Effective mental health interventions are needed; however, it is necessary to understand how mental health symptoms and needs are perceived and prioritized locally to tailor interventions for this population. We used an existing rapid ethnographic assessment approach to identify mental health problems from the perspective of children…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• BASIC

  NIH · $3.5M · 2017–2024

• NIH Grant R34MH079910

  NIH · $510k · 2012

• Improving Health Outcomes for Orphans by Preventing HIV/STD Risk.

  NIH · $2.2M · 2012–2017

Frequent coauthors

• Byron J. Powell

  Washington University in St. Louis

  36 shared

• Michael D. Pullmann

  University of Washington

  35 shared

• Sara J. Landes

  University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

  34 shared

• Lucy Berliner

  Harborview Medical Center

  33 shared

• Cara C. Lewis

  Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

  33 shared

• Laura K. Murray

  31 shared

• Aaron R. Lyon

  30 shared

• Rinad S. Beidas

  Northwestern University

  30 shared

Labs

• RISE MENTAL HEALTHPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of Georgia

Awards & honors

• 2013 Western Psychological Association’s Enrico E. Jones Awa…
• Outstanding Student Investigator Award from The Society for…
• Graduate Excellence Award by the UW Office of Graduate Stude…
• Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being…

Similar researchers at University of Washington

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• Geoffrey Boyntonh-54
• Jonathon Brownh-52