Jessica Schleider, Ph.D.

Major depression in youth is a serious psychiatric illness.  Even when diagnosed by primary care providers, less than half of youth with major depression receive treatment of any kind. Thus, there is a need for interventions that are more feasible for youth and parents to access and complete—and that may also strengthen parents’ likelihood of pursuing additional, longer-term services for their child in the future.

Research suggests that single-session interventions may offer a promising path forward.  Single Session Interventions include core elements of comprehensive, evidence-based treatments, but their brevity makes them easier to disseminate beyond traditional clinical settings.  Dr. Schleider’s KTGF-funded project is examining whether these empirically-supported single session interventions can help bridge the gap between primary care-based depression screening and access to services.

The primary aim of her study is to test whether online, youth- and parent-directed single session interventions may increase access to mental health treatment, reduce youth depressive symptoms, and relieve parental stress following youth diagnosis of major depression.  Results may produce an easy to disseminate, low-cost model for promoting youth treatment for major depression.

To learn more about Dr, Schleider’s work, visit her research lab or read recent profiles of her work in The Atlantic and Vox.  Dr. Schleider was recently selected as one of Forbes 2020  30 under 30 Healthcare.