Expanding Access to Mental Health Resources and Disability Services for Children and Families

Heather Risser, PhD, is an assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and associate director of the Mental Health Services and Policy Program.  

Risser’s research focuses on violence prevention, child welfare, parenting and access to parenting and mental health promotion services for underserved children and families. She leads the Family CARE (Coaching, Advocacy, Resources and Evaluation) Parenting Lab at Feinberg, which strives to maximize parent and child wellbeing by identifying specific disparities in care access as well as developing targeted programs that address parent and child needs through conducting community-engaged research. Risser is also a principal investigator for Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and her team supports DCFS to implement decision-support strategies and outcomes measurement.  

What are your research interests? 

I’m passionate about children’s mental health. My research examines opportunities for parents and community partners to promote children’s mental health, heal from violence, improve access to disability services and lead healthier lives. 

What is the ultimate goal of your research? 

Right now, there are so many barriers preventing parents from accessing services for their children. Sometimes the services they can access aren’t the right fit because they weren’t created with community needs in mind. By treating parents as equal partners in the research process, we hope to shift what and how services are provided to truly meet families’ needs. 

What types of collaborations are you engaged in across campus (and beyond)? 

Across campus I am part of the Disability Health Service Research workgroup. Everyone in this group is doing important work around increasing service access for people living with disabilities. As the parent of a child with disabilities, I know firsthand how important it is for parents to get developmentally relevant resources to support their children. The Chicagoland Autism Connection and the National Association for Down Syndrome are community partners in this work.  

I am thrilled to work with Emily Miller at Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Sheehan Fisher, PhD, at Feinberg to provide perinatal depression prevention services for expectant parents and the staff at Prentice Women’s Hospital NICU to provide support to parents. 

Beyond campus, I have been fortunate to be a member of the Collaborative on Healthy Parenting in Primary Care sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Engaging Individuals with Disability in the Research Process Workgroup; and the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence. 

How is your research funded? 

Some of my work has been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, but the bulk my work has been funded by state grants administered by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority and the Illinois Department of Human Services. I’d like to acknowledge the Ken and Ruth Davee Award for Innovative Investigations in Affective Disorders, which funded preliminary data collection that led to first National Institutes of Health application getting scored.  

Where have you recently published papers? 

My research has been published in Clinical Psychology Review, the Journal of Adolescent Health, the Journal of Pediatrics and others. 

Who inspires you? Or who are your mentors? 

More people than I have space to list, but my mentors include Katherine Wisner, Tina Boisseau, Rick McGee, Sheehan Fisher, Stew Shankman and Jason Washburn. I want to acknowledge the work of Zoe Vanella and Kevin Allen in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences research administration, Jason Hawkins (Sponsored Research Officer) and Elizabette Rischall (Accounting Services for Research and Sponsored Programs). I can only do what I do because of their expertise and dedication to the research enterprise. I also want to acknowledge the incredible contributions of the current and former students and staff that support our projects at every stage of the research cycle.  

I admire the outstanding members of the Disability and Health Services Research workgroup; the dedicated members of the Northwestern Medical Women’s Faculty Organization; the innovative faculty and staff in NUCATS; Bonnie Spring’s vision for teamscience.net; the experience and generosity of the faculty and staff in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; the amazing providers at the Prentice Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and across Lurie Children’s Hospital; and the impactful work of the Center for Community Health and the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities.