The “Why” of My Grant Writing| Becky Taylor
My grant writing “why” aligns with my direct clinical practice experience and research area interest: suicide prevention and intervention. Reflecting on my grant writing, “why,” it began while I was an undergraduate student at Truman State University. As a psychology major, I was presented with an opportunity to complete a summer internship at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health. During my time at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, I received an e-mail from the American Association of Suicidology requesting the need for field researchers to aid in completing psychological autopsies for a grant that was obtained from the Federal Railroad Association (FRA) and Federal Transit Association (FTA). I began working as a field researcher at the American Association of Suicidology completing psychological autopsies. My work as a field researcher allowed me to be trained in a 96-question interview protocol and interview families who had experienced a loss to suicide. This position was my first experience working on a grant, receiving training on carrying out psychological autopsies, utilizing clinical skills in a real-life setting during the interview process, providing resources; and sparked my interest and current passion for suicide prevention research.
I went on to complete my Masters of Social Work (MSW) at Saint Louis University and during my time as a graduate student, I was able to continue gaining clinical skills and applying these skills through practicum experiences. I quickly learned that individuals across treatment settings (both inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment) and with various mental health symptoms, continued to struggle with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
My first full-time job post-MSW was at a substance abuse treatment facility in St. Louis providing services to women. My role in this job was less clinical based and more research-based, with a focus on managing agency grants. It was during my time at this substance abuse treatment facility that I learned just how important grant funding is to provide services. I witnessed firsthand, how many lives had been changed for the better due to grant funding, and how significantly services are impacted by grant funding.
My career then took on a more clinical role as I shifted to work inpatient mental health providing inpatient behavioral health services to adolescents, adults, and older adults. The individuals admitted to inpatient behavioral health services presented with suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, or psychosis. I was able to refine my clinical assessment skills and carried out over a thousand suicide specific assessments. It was during my time as an inpatient social worker that I realized my passion for suicide prevention as I was surrounded by individuals struggling with suicidal ideation and behavior daily for about 3 ½ years. Further, I was able to gain insight into the warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors of suicide in both adolescents and adults.
I decided to shift into an outpatient mental health provider role as a school social worker and was curious to see how suicide ideation and behaviors may differ in adolescents outside of an inpatient treatment facility. In this position, I saw large numbers of adolescents struggling with suicide ideation and behaviors and many of whom had never received mental health treatment previously. Although I have seen suicide risk factors, warning signs, and protective factors in adolescents, it was during this time that I began to research adolescent suicide prevention to see if the literature supported or refuted what I was seeing in practice. The literature review that I completed allowed me to update the district suicide risk assessment. I became more and more interested in the clinical assessment of suicide in this role and the difference in provider characteristics on the clinical assessment process. The questions I had surrounding adolescent suicide prevention and the clinical assessment of suicide lead me to return to Saint Louis University to pursue my Ph.D.
Quickly after beginning the Ph.D. program, I was presented with an opportunity to work at a University providing direct services to student athletes, implementing mental health policy, and carrying out mental health training including suicide prevention training. Despite the change in the treatment setting, suicidal ideation, and behaviors persisted. Due to the persistence of suicidal ideation and behaviors, I became interested in providing my clients with cutting-edge, suicide-specific treatment. I recently attended both online and role-play training in the suicide specific treatment framework, the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS), and have been using this intervention with my clients. Based on the positive results I have seen thus far in my practice, and the positive client outcomes in the research literature, I am interested in implementation science outcomes and client outcomes related to the evidence-based practice, CAMS.
After reflecting on my “why” I can see that my interest in suicide prevention started at around 21 years old and has seemed to follow me in every career move I have made. While I have limited grant writing experience, grant writing serves as a vehicle in which to provide cutting edge treatment services that can be translated to practice and can significantly change lives for the better. Specifically, when it comes to the field of suicide prevention, grant writing can save lives. This course has been extremely valuable to me as I plan to not only write a grant for this course, by work on obtaining grants in my current role and throughout my career to secure grant funding to provide the best suicide specific treatment to individuals that will then decrease suicide ideation and behaviors.
