Simmons School of Social work Professor Helen Reinherz is spotlighted as one of three "champions of behavioral health" across the nation in the July/August issue of Behavioral Health Management magazine. Here's the journal's profile of Dr. Reinherz:
By her own admission, Helen Reinherz, MSW, ScD, likes to "stick with things." She certainly has in her research, in which she has spent more than a quarter century as the principal investigator of the Simmons Longitudinal Study. This endeavor began in 1977, tracking 5-year-olds in one New England community as they progressed through various stages of development. The study examines behavioral, health, and family factors that lead to good or poor mental health. Today about 400 of the original participants, now around age 33, are still being interviewed, and Dr. Reinherz and her fellow researchers have published results on predictors of major depression in early adulthood, predictors of eating disorders in young adult women, childhood risk factors for drug disorders later in life, and more.
"There is enormous value in being able to follow lives over time," says Dr. Reinherz, who has "stayed with" the Simmons College (Boston) School of Social Work for 40 years. Her research earned her the 2005 Distinguished Achievement Award from the national Society for Social Work and Research. "I chose longitudinal research in the field of mental health with a 'typical' community population since I believe that such studies can enrich our understanding of the development of mental health problems, leading to programs of early intervention. In other words, I believe 'a stitch in time saves nine.'"
For example, she cites the need to study the "long shadows" childhood depression casts into adulthood. She and her colleagues have found that kids who had suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts at age 15 had poorer mental health at ages 18 and 30 than their peers. Dr. Reinherz believes such research reinforces the value of screening for mental health problems at a young age and preventive efforts: "I believe you can offer help early to avoid a lifelong disabling condition."
Another example of Dr. Reinherz and her team's research is their examination of women in the study who developed eating disorders as adults. They found that these women had more serious health problems before age 5, and their mothers reported anxiety-depression at age 9. Families of these women had more histories of depression, eating problems, and changes in family financial circumstances before age 15. Their mothers described them at age 15 as having more behavioral problems.
In another examination of the study participants at age 21, the researchers found that siblings' substance use disorders predicted depression and drug disorders for both men and women in the study. Specific risk factors for drug abuse/dependence were larger family size, lower socioeconomic status, hyperactivity, attention problems, and aggression.
Dr. Reinherz acknowledges the bond she has developed with her research subjects over the years as she has stuck by them. "I feel very tied to them," she says, remembering the joy she felt when they married and had children of their own, or sadness when participants or parents have died (Dr. Reinherz usually writes personal notes in response to family losses).
Dr. Reinherz and her team have stayed in touch with participants through frequent interviews (every three or four years) and semiannual newsletters reporting findings and age-appropriate advice (e.g., educational opportunities and tips for recreation, home buying [a major goal of many of the study participants], and parenting). They offer prompt responses to participants' requests for counseling referrals. "Thus far, we have kept in touch with the majority, but it does take constant and hard, although rewarding, work," reflects Dr. Reinherz.
Dr. Reinherz acknowledges that her research has its strengths and weaknesses: "The strengths of the study include the capacity to trace lives over important periods of development in a primarily working-class/middle-class community. We can also track individual pathways for each respondent so that unusual strengths or difficulties can be uncovered. The weaknesses include the fact that a single community in a New England town cannot encompass the diversity representative of the entire country. But we can generalize to primarily working/middle-class groups."
Dr. Reinherz encourages professionals in mental health service delivery to stick with their work through these tough times for behavioral healthcare. "I hope people in the field don't get discouraged because it's very hard these days. I hope that they keep helping and caring about children and their families." With the research Dr. Reinherz and her colleagues continue to develop, perhaps mental health practitioners' efforts will be even more successful.
- Douglas J. Edwards, Managing Editor, Behavioral Health Management magazine
For more information on the Simmons Longitudinal Study, visit www.simmons.edu/ssw/sls.
Indicates link will open in a new browser window
