Sylvie Naar

Research topics

Matched from indexed official interests or NIH project evidence.

• Health Disparities in Mental Health
• Learning and Memory
• Human Factors and Attention
• Cognitive Aging

Active NIH awards

• Scaling Up Implementation Strategies to Improve the DIAGNOSE and PREVENT Pillars for Young MSM in Florida

  5R01MH132147-04

  NIMH · FY 2025 · $1000K

  This project will launch a Florida wide effort to promote the delivery of developmentally sensitive and evidence-based DIAGNOSE and PREVENT counseling testing and referral services (CTR) for young men who have sex with men (YMSM). The goal is to leverage implementation science strategies to improve the capacity of the HIV HealthForce to deliver evidence-based practices (risk reduction counseling, PrEP referral and motivational interviewing) within CTR services. Our recent YMSM Mystery Shoppers studies conducted at CTR sites in three cities indicated that providers are woefully unprepared or do not know how to deliver developmentally appropriate, CTR services to YMSM and miss opportunities to deliver these evidence-based practices. Mystery Shopper is a quality management strategy to monitor implementation fidelity to developmentally responsive EBPs in CTR settings. However, assessment and feedback alone are insufficient to improve fidelity; the HealthForce must be properly trained and given technical assistance. We propose integrating two implementation strategies: quality management Mystery Shoppers and HealthForce training in developmentally tailored motivational interviewing with centralized technical assistance. We will test Young Adult Centered HealthForce Training (YACHT) package in Florida’s EHE counties among the Department of Health’s 42 contracted sites who delivered CTR to at least 24 young MSM in the previous 12 months using a Stepped Wedge design. We power on both effectiveness outcomes (# of tests of YMSM) and implementation outcomes (EBP fidelity based on Mystery Shopper Assessments) consistent with a Type 2 Hybrid trial.

• Transforming Community Health with Disruptive Innovations

  5R01MD017404-05

  NIMHD · FY 2025 · $588K

  Contextual factors create significant health disparities in prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of the comorbid physical and mental health conditions that are typically managed in primary care settings. The current NIH Director’s unified strategy calls for moving beyond documenting such disparities to focus on a solution-oriented approach. There are shockingly few evidence-based interventions to address such contextual factors. New paradigms are needed to intervene on, and not just document, health disparities in primary care where behavioral health is managed. We propose to develop and test a transformative paradigm for translating basic behavioral and social science into new interventions to improve health disparities in primary care settings. The proposed paradigm is the first of its kind to integrate community-based participatory research, systems science, diffusion of innovation theory, and item response theory, leveraging an established framework of early phase translational behavioral and social science to rigorously define new strategies to address contextual factors within complex health systems and rigorously develop measures to assess impact. Addressing contextual factors in integrated primary care systems in the United States is an innovation that can be rigorously mapped using community-engaged systems science methods. This map identifies “inflection points” likely to result in the most impactful intervention targets, and then established pathways can be used to translate fundamental behavioral and social science discoveries into new interventions at these points. Systems science modeling can then simulate potential interventions and produce mathematical standards for intervention efficacy in future trials. This transformative paradigm will also detail innovative methods to develop efficient and effective measurement tools to ensure scientifically valid, measurable health outcomes as delineated in the unified strategy.

• Scaling Up Implementation Strategies to Improve the DIAGNOSE and PREVENT Pillars for Young MSM in Florida

  5R01MH132147-03

  NIMH · FY 2024 · $1.1M

  Abstract This project will launch a Florida wide effort to promote the delivery of developmentally sensitive, culturally appropriate and evidence-based DIAGNOSE and PREVENT counseling testing and referral services (CTR) for young men who have sex with men (YMSM). The goal is to leverage implementation science strategies to improve the capacity of the HIV HealthForce to deliver evidence-based practices (risk reduction counseling, PrEP referral and Tailored Motivational Interviewing) within CTR services. Our recent YMSM Mystery Shoppers studies conducted at CTR sites in three cities indicated that providers are woefully unprepared or do not know how to deliver developmentally appropriate, culturally competent CTR services to YMSM and miss opportunities to deliver these evidence-based practices. Mystery Shopper is a quality management strategy to monitor implementation fidelity to culturally and developmentally responsive EBPs in CTR settings. However, assessment and feedback alone are insufficient to improve fidelity; the HealthForce must be properly trained and given technical assistance. We propose integrating two implementation strategies: quality management Mystery Shoppers and HealthForce training in Tailored Motivational Interviewing with centralized technical assistance. We will test Young Adult Centered HealthForce Training (YACHT) package in Florida’s seven EHE counties among the Department of Health’s 42 contracted sites who delivered CTR to at least 24 young MSM in the previous 12 months using a Stepped Wedge design. We power on both effectiveness outcomes (# of tests of YMSM) and implementation outcomes (EBP fidelity based on Mystery Shopper Assessments) consistent with a Type 2 Hybrid trial.

• Scaling Up Implementation Strategies to Improve the DIAGNOSE and PREVENT Pillars for Young MSM in Florida

  5R01MH132147-02

  NIMH · FY 2023 · $1.0M

  Abstract This project will launch a Florida wide effort to promote the delivery of developmentally sensitive, culturally appropriate and evidence-based DIAGNOSE and PREVENT counseling testing and referral services (CTR) for young men who have sex with men (YMSM). The goal is to leverage implementation science strategies to improve the capacity of the HIV HealthForce to deliver evidence-based practices (risk reduction counseling, PrEP referral and Tailored Motivational Interviewing) within CTR services. Our recent YMSM Mystery Shoppers studies conducted at CTR sites in three cities indicated that providers are woefully unprepared or do not know how to deliver developmentally appropriate, culturally competent CTR services to YMSM and miss opportunities to deliver these evidence-based practices. Mystery Shopper is a quality management strategy to monitor implementation fidelity to culturally and developmentally responsive EBPs in CTR settings. However, assessment and feedback alone are insufficient to improve fidelity; the HealthForce must be properly trained and given technical assistance. We propose integrating two implementation strategies: quality management Mystery Shoppers and HealthForce training in Tailored Motivational Interviewing with centralized technical assistance. We will test Young Adult Centered HealthForce Training (YACHT) package in Florida’s seven EHE counties among the Department of Health’s 42 contracted sites who delivered CTR to at least 24 young MSM in the previous 12 months using a Stepped Wedge design. We power on both effectiveness outcomes (# of tests of YMSM) and implementation outcomes (EBP fidelity based on Mystery Shopper Assessments) consistent with a Type 2 Hybrid trial.

Earlier awards or dates unavailable

• Methods for Early Phase Translation of Basic Science into Behavioral Treatments to Improve HealthFY 2025 · $175K
• Precision HIV Prevention: Piloting a youth learning health communityFY 2025 · $162K
• Transforming Health Equity Research in Integrated Primary Care: Antiracism as a Disruptive InnovationFY 2024 · $629K
• Precision HIV Prevention: Piloting a youth learning health communityFY 2024 · $184K
• Methods for Early Phase Translation of Basic Science into Behavioral Treatments to Improve HealthFY 2024 · $151K
• Transforming Health Equity Research in Integrated Primary Care: Antiracism as a Disruptive InnovationFY 2023 · $604K
• Methods for Early Phase Translation of Basic Science into Behavioral Treatments to Improve HealthFY 2023 · $210K
• Transforming Health Equity Research in Integrated Primary Care: Antiracism as a Disruptive InnovationFY 2023 · $125K
• Understanding the impact of racism—a social determinant of health—on the scope of the co-occurrence of mental health and cardiometabolic challenges in high-disparity racial/ethnic minority populationsFY 2023 · $125K