Research Overview
Mental Health Services Research; Interventions to Improve Depression care and outcomes in community-based settings Martha L. Bruce, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a Professor of Sociology in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University and in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and Associate Vice-Chair for Research, Department of Psychiatry. A trained sociologist and psychiatric epidemiologist, Dr. Bruce conducts community-based services research aim at improving access to quality mental health among vulnerable older adults suffering from depression. Dr. Bruce is Principal Investigator of an NIMH-funded Interventions and Practice Research Infrastructure Program award (R24), that works in partnership with community-based agencies to develop research aimed at improving the treatment and outcomes of depression in elderly patients receiving home health services. She is Director of the Research Methods Core of the Cornell ACISR (P30) for Late Life Depression, and Principal Investigator of a New York State contract to assess residents of Adult Homes (i.e., Board and Care) serving elderly adults and adults with chronic and severe mental illness. She also is Principal Investigator of the Cornell subcontract of the NIMH funded (to U. Penn) R01 to investigate the impact of depression treatment on mortality in NIMH-funded, multi-site Prevention of Suicide in Primary Care Elderly: Collaborative Trial (PROSPECT), and Co-Director of the Ithaca-based Cornell Institute for Translation Research on Aging. Currently, Dr. Bruce chairs the NIMH Services Research Review Group (SRV; now SRNS) and is incoming chair of the Board of Directors of the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation. Dr. Bruce is an active mentor to postdoctoral fellows and junior investigators. She is Principal Investigator of the NIMH/Cornell "Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Mental Health" (R25), a national program that provides mentoring and consultation to junior investigators during their transition to independent investigator. She is also the Cornell Principal Investigator for the NIMH-funded, Tri-Site Collaborative Training Program (T32) in geriatric mental health services research and Co-Director of Cornell's NIMH-funded T32 training research program in geriatric, is a member of the Executive Committee and Core faculty of the NIMH/UCSD Summer Research Institute, and serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health and Society Scholar's Program.
