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Research

Research / Clinical DrugTrials

LSU Health Sciences Research Building

RESEARCH / CLINICAL DRUG TRIALS:

Mark Townsend, M.D.,
and Erich Conrad, M.D.

Dr. Townsend (LEFT)

Dr. Townsend specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mood and psychotic disorders. He is the head of the LSU Behavioral Research Clinic (BRC), which conducts research protocols that require inpatient treatment and close outpatient supervision. The BRC performs investigator-initiated and pharmaceutical company-sponsored clinical trials, as well as quality-of-life and other naturalistic research, with individuals with mood and psychotic disorders. Dr. Townsend has conducted more than thirty such trials, and is the author of ninety peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, published scientific abstracts and edited volumes.

Dr. Conrad (RIGHT)

Dr. Conrad has served as principle or sub-investigator in numerous clinical trials at the LSUHSC anxiety and mood disorders clinic. His research interests include somatoform disorders and psychiatric illness in medically complicated patients, such as depression in epilepsy, and psychiatric sequelae of traumatic physical injury.

Drs. Townsend and Conrad lead the psychopharmacology supervision of the Behavioral Sciences Center Outpatient Clinic.

THE VICTIMS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

Amy Dickson, Psy.D. Michele Many, LCSW, Heidi Leffler, LCSW,

The Victims Assistance Program (VAP) continues the work begun by the Violence Intervention Program for Children and Families (VIP) which was developed in 1992 as a direct response to the crisis of rising violence in New Orleans (paralleling that in the United States as a whole) and the fact that ever increasing numbers of children were being exposed to violence as victims or witnesses. The philosophy guiding the VAP program is a systems approach designed to work with the whole community to solve the problem of violence among our youth. VAP aims to decrease violence through a combination of early intervention, counseling, and services to victims as well as education and prevention forums directed at police, parents, and children. A key component of the program is education of police officers about the effects of violence on children and families. Following Hurricane Katrina, the team was immediately back in New Orleans at the request of the police and other first responders to work with their staff who were experiencing the stress of remaining and providing services in a devastated city.

In an effort to reach traumatized children and families as quickly as possible, a 24-hour hotline supported by mental health professionals was established to provide the needed communication through which children and families touched by violence could seek immediate referral, counseling, and guidance. It is available to police officers and families to obtain advice or information at the scene of community or domestic violence.

In developing our program as a multidisciplinary effort, we worked to find ways to build relationships between community, police, mental health professionals, and schools to address issues of prevention and services for referred children who witness violence and suffer from symptoms related to their exposure. We continue to problem-solve with police to develop strategies that might work better for the child witnesses when they investigate violent incidents, such as homicides. We work with parents to find ways that they can protect their children, keep them safe, and away from violent scenes because of the potentially traumatizing impact on both them and their children. Further, we work to build strengths in communities to help both parents and children.

Our program has continued to evolve and grow. Materials that have been developed for use in the VIP program include: Keeping your Child Safe, The Child Safety Booklet, Keeping Families Safe: A Family Violence Handbook, and a Community Resource Directory. The team also published numerous self-help pamphlets after Hurricane Katrina as the team was instrumental in working with first responders and their families, school personnel and their students, child care and Head Start sites, and other families and professionals in the New Orleans community.

For more information about the program, contact Dr. Amy Dickson, Program Director, Department of Psychiatry, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, P.O. Box 1287, Metairie, LA 70004; (504) 458-0906; fax (504) 897-4781; e-mail, adicks@lsuhsc.edu.

THE HARRIS INFANT MENTAL HEALTH CENTER

The Harris Center for Infant Mental Health of the LSUHSC Department of Psychiatry is devoted to the study and treatment of infants and young children. The goals of the Center are:

To develop a crucial number of mental health professionals locally, nationally, and internationally trained to evaluate and treat infants.
To develop networks to provide support for individuals working with infants.
To bring together individuals from different mental health disciplines who will have a core set of skills and knowledge to assess and treat infants.
To develop expertise in evaluation and treatment for high-risk infants.
To educate the judges, lawyers and court personnel on the effects of violence on young children.