UB SON’s Yu-Ping Chang named Garman professor for influential work in mental health and addictions
Published September 25, 2017 This content is archived.
Yu-Ping Chang, associate professor and associate dean for research and scholarship, was named the first School of Nursing Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman professor.
The Patricia H. Garman Behavioral Health Nursing Endowment Fund Professorship was established to attract and retain the best and brightest nursing faculty, enhance research endeavors and help the School to realize its vision.
“Dr. Chang best exemplifies the wishes of the Garman family to support the enhancement of research endeavors in nursing,” says UBSON Dean Marsha Lewis. “Her scholarship focuses on mental health and addiction; this is particularly relevant to honor Patricia Garman’s career as a psychiatric nurse.”
Chang’s research in the areas of mental health and addictions has been widely published and funded.
This summer, she was awarded a $1 million HRSA grant for the project “Behavioral Health Integration in a Native American Primary Care Clinic.” Additionally, she has received funding for several other research projects on mental health, prescription drug misuse and addictions in older adults.
“It is well known that on a national level the opioid epidemic has increased the need for more well trained behavioral health and addictions specialists,” Chang says.
“Two of the significant urgent solutions to mitigate the opioid epidemic are to increase access to proper treatment as well as increase prevention efforts (e.g., screening, assessment, behavioral counseling such as motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy, and referral, and relapse prevention), both of which will require sufficient, well-trained behavioral health providers.”
Chang also learned this month that a collaborative project with UB’s Research Institute on Addictions, UBMD Family Medicine, UB School of Social Work, and the Graduate School of Education, Department of Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology, was funded by HRSA for 4 years for $1.92 million. The project is entitled, “Behavioral Health-focused Interprofessional Education and Practice for Graduate Students in an Integrated Care Setting.” Additional information about this grant is forthcoming.
“We are all honored to be a part of the Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman legacy,” Lewis says. “Dr. Chang is passionate on issues related to mental health and has proven to be an excellent researcher and outstanding mentor to our tenure-track faculty in helping them develop their research agendas.”
Chang earned a PhD in nursing from Saint Louis University. She received a BS in nursing and an MS in psychiatric and mental health nursing from Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She is also a member of the UB SON’s Promoting Health and Reducing Risk in Psychiatric Mental Health and Addictions scholarly team.
By Sarah Goldthrite
