The PIRE-Southwest Center was established in 1997 as the Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest (BHRCS) to conduct research on substance abuse and other behavioral health issues, particularly those affecting peoples of the Southwest United States. Our mission is to improve health through research and dissemination of information on healthy lifestyles. In our early years our focus was the impact of cultural factors on substance use and abuse. New Mexicans are disproportionately affected by behavioral health problems: gang and domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug abuse, drunken driving deaths and drug overdoses. Furthermore, many New Mexicans have inadequate access to healthcare services. PIRE-Southwest is an environment where scientists have come together to help solve these problems through intervention development, evaluation, and dissemination.
The PIRE-Southwest Center has conducted a wide range of research on the prevention and treatment of substance abuse and other behavioral health issues, including the impact of cultural factors on health risks. Examples of our early work include clinical trials of medications for treating addictions, longitudinal studies of impaired driving, evaluation of methadone maintenance and health care delivery in rural and cross-cultural settings.
In May 2006 BHRCS merged with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) and became its New Mexico-based research center. As part of PIRE, the PIRE-Southwest Center continues its original vision to become a leading research center that cultivates discovery, collaboration and informed policy in pursuit of our dream of a healthy society. We hold to our values of high quality and socially relevant research, scientific integrity, a sustainable productive environment and public trust.
Specializing in qualitative and mixed-methods research, intervention development and assessment, implementation science, program evaluation, participatory methods, and training and technical assistance, PIRE-Southwest has never lost sight of its core processes of original research, community engagement, and informing policy. We thank Sandra Lapham, M.D., M.P.H., for her initial vision and the creation of our center.
Highlighting PIRE-Southwest’s Past Projects
Prior to joining PIRE, the BHRCS had a long history of funding from the National Institutes of Health (e.g. NIMH) and a variety of public and private foundations (e.g. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, W.T. Grant Foundation. Over the years, the BHRCS managed projects in the area of substance abuse treatment interventions, alcohol and related mental health problems, screening programs for impaired driving offenders, impaired driving recidivism rates, pregnancy education, prenatal substance abuse, youth drug use, youth screening programs for drug abuse and other mental health problems, methadone maintenance effectiveness, homeless alcohol abuse treatment interventions, substance abuse treatment phase II-IV clinical trials, and substance abuse interventions for health care workers. Throughout our major research focus has been how cultural influences and contextual factors affect help-seeking behaviors as well as intervention development, implementation and sustainment.
Some of our past research projects include:
Long Term Recovery Among Convicted Drunk Drivers
Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, this R01 grant, extended the observation period of a cohort of first-time driving while impaired (DWI) offenders to 15 years. Subjects were first observed when they were court-mandated to undergo screening. For this project, we located and interviewed over 1000 subjects to measure the progression of alcohol use and other psychiatric disorders; determine long-term rates of driving outcomes; and evaluate two alternative theoretical models in predicting long-term, drinking/driving and traffic outcomes.
Principal Investigator: Sandra Lapham, M.D., M.P.H.
Grant Number: R01AA014750
Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials
BHRCS managed and executed clinical research protocols for the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry focusing on Phase II, III and IV. Target indications have focused on substance abuse and other areas of behavioral health, including medications to reduce binge eating, help compulsive gamblers and reduce cravings for alcohol, methamphetamine and cocaine.
Principal Investigator: Sandra Lapham, M.D., M.P.H.
Drug Use, Ethnicity, and Help Seeking among Rural Youth
In the literature on the behavioral health treatment needs of minority populations, very little attention is given to drug-using youth, ages 13 to 21, living in impoverished, ethnically diverse, rural regions. This two-year multi-method ethnographic project, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, examined contextual influences on drug use activities and the pathways to behavioral health care for Hispanic and White youth in southwestern New Mexico. The aim of the project was to identify critical differences in needs, help-seeking processes, and determinants of service utilization for Hispanic and White rural youth.
Principal Investigator: Cathleen Willging, Ph.D.
Grant Number: R21DA018237
Gender, Ethnicity, and Mental Health in a Rural State
This program of research, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, aimed to develop a better understanding of the effects of rural living on the mental health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons through the use of ethnographic methods. The project utilized participant observations and semi-structured interviews with behavioral health care providers and LGBT persons in two rural and two metropolitan New Mexico counties to provide rich descriptive information regarding the help seeking processes and barriers to care encountered by sexual and gender minority groups.
Principal Investigator: Cathleen Willging, Ph.D.
Grant Number: R21MH068628
