Funding Status:
Active - Currently funded and in progress
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Procurement Mechanism(s):
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Aims:
This task will be a research study to determine the acceptability and feasibility of methods for delivering behavioral health care without synchronous communication between the patient and behavioral health care provider in environments such as exploration missions.
This project
has five specific aims:
1. Survey and
understand the current status of behavioral health techniques used in spaceflight
by examining the literature and interviewing behavioral health clinicians at NASA-JSC and
other subject matter experts.
2. Conduct a
systematic review of the literature on behavioral health techniques that do not
require real-time communication (e.g., computer-guided therapy) which can be
utilized in an asynchronous communication environment (e.g., exploration class
missions) and compare them to traditional in-person delivered therapy.
3. Based in
part on the information derived from the first two aims, we will select asynchronous
behavioral health techniques and evaluate their feasibility, acceptability and
efficacy in comparison to traditional in-person delivered treatment in an RCT
with a sample of high functioning, healthy individuals at UCLA who report
symptomatology of a behavioral health condition relevant to space operations
(e.g., stress, fatigue/sleep disturbance, mood disturbance, or conflict).
4. Develop a
set of best practice guidelines for behavioral health support at NASA with relevance
to exploration class missions where real-time communication may be unavailable.
5. Prepare a
manuscript addressing the project’s findings for publication in a peer-reviewed
journal.