Funding Opportunity: NIH Social disconnection and Suicide Risk in Late Life (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)
Introduction
The purpose is to stimulate research to understand the link between social disconnection – including both objective social isolation as well as perceived social isolation (otherwise known as loneliness) – and suicidal thoughts and behaviors in late-life. Social disconnection can be characterized by structural components (e.g., objectively few social relationships or infrequent social contact, whether driven by individual choice or societal forces), functional components (e.g., low or insufficient levels of social support and feelings of being excluded), and qualitative components (e.g., perceptions that relationships are of poor quality or are dissatisfying).
Of specific interest is research that identifies mechanisms by which social disconnection confers risk for, and social integration protects against, suicidal thoughts and behaviors in late life. Putative mechanisms exist at multiple levels of analysis, including but not limited to neurobiological, behavioral, and environmental. Investigators are encouraged but not required to consider units of analysis within the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC).
Of particular interest is research that identifies neurobiological, behavioral, psychosocial, or environmental mechanisms that can be targets within an experimental therapeutics approach (e.g., the NIH Stage Model) intervention development or that can point to ways to modify existing healthcare and community-based services to better provide support for individuals in late-life in the midst of a suicidal crisis.
See more information here.
Please contact Dr. Karen Cielo, Director of Research Development, if you are interested in applying or would like to discuss the opportunity.