Research Overview
Associate Professor
Jo Anne Sirey, Ph.D. received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from City University of New York and completed a post-doctoral Fellowship at Weill-Cornell Medical College. Dr. Sirey is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and Clinical Director of the Geriatric Outpatient Service of the Weill-Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry. Dr. Sirey is the Director of Community Network Core the NIMH-supported Weill-Cornell Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research (ACISR, P30) and is Associate Director of Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Mental Health (R25). Dr. Sirey has long worked with the ACISR partners and studied mental health interventions in community-based settings that serve older adults. In her research on the treatment of depression in community based clinics, she documented the negative impact of stigma on mental health treatment participation and adherence to antidepressant medication. She is developing and studying the implementation and impact of interventions that address psychological barriers and stigma. Dr. Sirey is the Principal Investigator of an intervention to increase use of mental health services among depressed community dwelling elders (R01) and an intervention to improve treatment adherence among elders in primary care settings (K23).She has received a grant from Cornell Roybal Center for Translational Research (P30) to test a community based life review intervention with African American and Caribbean American elders. Dr. Sirey received the Woman of the Future Award from the New York Women's Agenda, the Essel Investigator Award from the NARSAD Foundation and the New Investigator Award during the 40th Annual New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit Meeting (NCDEU) sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition to her research, she is the Chair of the Westchester County Coalition for Geriatric Mental Health, an interdisciplinary group of aging and mental health providers, consumers, and advocates, who work to improve access and quality of mental health care for the County's elders. Dr. Sirey is on the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Foundation, is a reviewer for The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) for SAMHSA and serves as a reviewer on NIMH CSR review panels as an expert on stigma.
