Developing Measures to Advance Quality in Mental Health Care Services (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Background
The RFA aims to support the development, testing, validation and implementation of quality metrics in mental health services research, that can be submitted to and endorsed by the relevant regulatory or governing bodies. It is noted that very few measures exist for assessing the quality of mental health care services, and these measures are not typically standardized or utilized uniformly. The quality measures can be used by policymakers, payers, organizational leaders, and clinicians for a variety of endeavors, including providing measurement-based care, evaluating the effectiveness of evidence-based care, enacting quality improvement interventions, assessing comparative- and cost-effectiveness across programs or clinical settings, utilizing real-world data in decision-making, and developing payment models to continually improve mental health functioning and outcomes.

Grant Details
The aim of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to support the development, testing, and validation of outcome-focused mental health care quality measures. The goal is to facilitate the development and validation of mental health measures that will be submitted to national governing bodies for endorsement.

Areas of interest include the development and testing of new outcome-focused measures of mental health care quality based on existing standardized clinical measures (e.g., PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL, other Patient Reported Outcome Measures). Additionally, it encourages research studies that ensure the development and validation of quality measures that are broadly relevant across populations; this can include individuals across the lifespan (children and/or adults), and can be used to identify and address health disparities across racial and ethnic minority groups, individuals limited by language or cultural barriers, sexual and gender minorities, individuals living in rural areas, socioeconomically disadvantaged persons and other underserved groups.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include Higher Education Institutions (public/state controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education), nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS status (other than institutions of higher education), for-profit organizations (including small businesses), state governments, county governments, city or township governments,
special district governments,
Indian/Native American tribal governments (federally recognized), Indian/Native American tribal governments (other than federally recognized), U.S. Territory or Possession entities as well as foreign institutions.

Period of Performance
The maximum project period is 4 years. The open date for submission is September 10th 2023 with an earliest start date in October 2023. The expiration date for submission is October 11th 2023.

Grant Value
NIMH intends to commit $1,500,000 in FY 24 to fund up to 4 awards. Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

Place of Performance
Research funded under this FOA is expected to be conducted in the U.S. or with clear relevance to the U.S. domestic health system.