OPAL Projects
The OPAL Center is named after its goal of Optimizing and Personalizing interventions for people with schizophrenia Across the Lifespan. The target population for this ALACRITY Center is people diagnosed with schizophrenia, which typically affects individuals from adolescence or early adulthood until the end of life. Affected individuals commonly have impaired social and occupational functioning; experience persistent psychotic and mood symptoms; have cognitive problems that may progress; and are at risk for disability and premature death. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals are particularly at risk of poor outcomes. The goal of OPAL Center is to extend our efforts to accelerate the development and implementation of effective, individualized treatments for schizophrenia in real-world clinical settings. OPAL Center projects will produce scalable interventions that are targeted to the needs of individuals and that aim to address and ultimately eliminate ethnoracial inequities in treatments, services, and outcomes.
OPAL is a platform for the development, adaptation, and examination of interventions that address key issues in the treatment and delivery of services for schizophrenia. OPAL projects use the Center’s common resources and methodologies to improve implementation and personalization of treatments. Stakeholders contribute substantively to individual projects during project planning, execution, and interpretation of findings. The partnership of OPAL investigators with the New York State Office of Mental Health provides a springboard for project development, testing, and implementation.