# Center to Accelerate Translation of Interventions to Decrease Premature Mortality in Persons with Serious Mental Illness

> **NIH NIH P50** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $2,484,670

## Abstract

Persons with serious mental illness (SMI) experience one of the largest health disparities in the U.S., with
mortality rates two to three times higher than the overall population. Much of this premature death is
attributable to cardiovascular disease (CVD), driven by elevated rates of CVD risks (unhealthy diet, physical
inactivity, tobacco smoking, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia) influenced by interconnected
biologic, health behavior, and contextual (e.g., system, policy) factors. Despite the existence of tailored,
effective interventions to decrease CVD risk in people with SMI, adoption of these interventions remains
limited, contributing to thousands of potentially preventable deaths a year. Our ALACRITY Center was
originally created in response to this extraordinary burden of years of life lost and has used cutting-edge
transdisciplinary methods to develop and pilot test strategies and conduct methods innovations work to scale
practical, effective interventions aimed at reducing CVD risk in this population. In our new application for the
Center to Accelerate Translation of Interventions to Decrease Premature Mortality in Persons with Serious
Mental Illness, our goal is to continue to build on this foundational work and amplify the Center’s impact
through an enhanced focus on health equity, partnership engagement, methods innovations, and building
capacity amongst mental health researchers and community partners to improve physical health for persons
with SMI. Our uniquely qualified and diverse team will conduct a signature R01 and three R34s to rigorously
plan, test, and model implementation strategies addressing all CVD risks in persons with SMI in community
settings. We propose: 1) conducting an implementation trial of a behavioral weight loss intervention in two
states; 2) piloting a system-level strategy for a CVD risk factor care evidence bundle tailored to people with
SMI in primary care; 3) developing and piloting strategies to scale a healthy weight intervention in youth; and
4) systems modeling to inform scaling of evidence-based tobacco cessation treatment in community mental
health settings. The Methods Core will grow its transdisciplinary approach incorporating clinical and behavioral
intervention research, implementation science, biostatistics, systems science, and health services and policy
research to support Center work, and advance methods in: 1) developing a policy implementation
measurement framework; 2) identifying implementation strategies’ core components; 3) improving the
precision and robustness of implementation trials; and 4) building “hybrid” systems models in implementation
science. The Administrative Core will engage partners, building on its well-established Community Advisory
Board, lead Center-wide health equity efforts, and bring together all Center activities. The grave disparities in
life expectancy and CVD risk burden in persons with SMI call for continued, concentrated, transdisciplinary
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10843609
- **Project number:** 2P50MH115842-05
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Gail L. Daumit
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $2,484,670
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10843609

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10843609, Center to Accelerate Translation of Interventions to Decrease Premature Mortality in Persons with Serious Mental Illness (2P50MH115842-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10843609. Licensed CC0.

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