# CoCM-PAL: Adapting Collaborative Care for Older Adults with Serious Illness and Comorbid Depression or Anxiety Receiving Ambulatory Palliative Care

> **NIH NIH K76** · WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV · 2024 · $243,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Dr. Daniel Shalev is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Weill Cornell with expertise in
psychiatry, palliative medicine, and behavioral geriatrics. His career goals are to 1) become a leading
investigator in mental health delivery for older adults with serious illness and thereby 2) to improve mental
health outcomes for older adults with serious illness. Research: Over 70% of deaths in the United States are
due to chronic illness. The burden of serious medical illnesses like cancer, heart failure, and chronic lung
disease falls disproportionately on older adults. As the population of older adults grows, so too will the impact
of serious chronic illnesses. The standard of care for older adults with serious illness includes geriatric
palliative care, a multidisciplinary approach to palliative care that emphasizes longitudinal care, multimorbidity,
and quality of life. Psychiatric and psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety are common among
older adults living with serious illness and have a significant impact on outcomes such as quality of life. Mental
health is a core focus of palliative care. Older adults face distinct barriers to accessing mental health care that
make them particularly likely to depend on palliative care clinicians for mental health services. However,
palliative care clinicians may face barriers to assessing and managing such symptoms leading to gaps in care.
The objective of this proposal is to adapt the Collaborative Care Model to the palliative care setting to improve
depression and anxiety care for older adults. The Collaborative Care Model integrates mental health services
into medical care that has been validated in over 90 clinical trials. The model involves embedding a social
worker and psychiatrist in a medical setting to provide direct patient care and guide medical clinicians in
improving their mental health skills and knowledge. This study will utilize the Method for Program Adaptation
through Community Engagement, an intervention adaptation method co-designed by Dr. Shalev’s primary
mentor Dr. Cary Reid, to create the Collaborative Care Model for Palliative Care (CoCM-PAL) (Aim 1) and to
conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial of CoCM-PAL (Aim 2). Completion of the proposed study will
generate key pilot data for a large efficacy trial of CoCM-PAL. Career Development: Dr. Shalev has assembled
a multidisciplinary team of mentors (Primary Mentor: Dr. Cary Reid, Co-Mentors: Dr. Vicki Jackson, Dr. Jesse
Fann, and Dr. Catherine Riffin) and advisors (Dr. Harold Pincus, Dr. Kelly McConnell, Dr. Mark Lachs) with
expertise in geriatric serious illness care, geriatric mental health, and Collaborative Care. His career
development plan focuses on training in 1) behavioral intervention/design and clinical trials for older adults with
serious illness 2) integration of implementation science into early phase of intervention research, 3) clinical
care of older adults with bot...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10972911
- **Project number:** 1K76AG083287-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Shalev
- **Activity code:** K76 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $243,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-01 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10972911

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10972911, CoCM-PAL: Adapting Collaborative Care for Older Adults with Serious Illness and Comorbid Depression or Anxiety Receiving Ambulatory Palliative Care (1K76AG083287-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10972911. Licensed CC0.

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