Arne L. Beck, PhD
Senior Investigator
Arne L. Beck, PhD, is a Senior Investigator in the Institute for Health Research. His research focus is in mental health services and includes suicide prevention, web-based psychotherapies for prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety among general adult and perinatal populations, and collaborative care models for treatment of co-occurring medical and mental health conditions.
Dr. Beck completed his doctoral training in health psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, and has over 30 years' experience working in health and mental health care delivery systems. He is the Kaiser Permanente Colorado lead investigator for the Mental Health Research Network, a consortium of 14 research centers embedded in health care delivery systems funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Beck is also an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors for the Jefferson Center for Mental Health.
Selected Research:
- Mental Health Research Network III
- Funder: National Institute of Mental Health
- Award End Date: 6/30/2025
- Mental Health Research Network III Signature Project 1: Accelerating Implementation of Mindful Mood Balance for Moms (MMB4Moms)
- Funder: National Institute of Mental Health
- Award End Date: 6/30/2025
- Collaborative Care for Depression and Anxiety
- Funder: Kaiser Permanente Garfield Memorial Fund
- Award End Date: 9/30/25
- A Pragmatic Trial of Parent-focused Prevention in Pediatric Primary Care: Implementation and Patient Outcomes in Three Health Systems (GGC)
- Funder: National Institutes of Health
- Award End Date: 05/31/2025
- Pragmatic Trial of Population-based Programs to Prevent Suicide Attempt
- Funder: National Institute of Mental Health
- Award End Date: 07/31/2020
- An Evaluation of the National Zero Suicide Model (NZSM) Across Learning Healthcare Systems
- Funder: National Institute of Mental Health
- Award End Date: 06/30/2022
This grant expands the existing Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) to include 14 research centers embedded in health systems serving a combined population of over 25 million patients in 16 states. MHRN infrastructure is being enhanced to support a next-generation practice-based network, including an Administrative Core, a Methods core, two Signature research projects and two Pilot research projects.
The goal of this pragmatic implementation-effectiveness trial is to test the effectiveness of an online Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy program in preventing perinatal depression, when supported by telephone coaches who are clinicians or peers with lived experience. A second goal is to test the impact of clinic-based implementation strategies on the reach of the program.
The goal of this project is to implement and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of a collaborative care model for a population of patients at KPCO with depression and/or anxiety, using evidence-based short-term treatments delivered telephonically, cost-efficient automated processes for patient outreach and follow-up, risk-based results routing to providers, and EHR tools for patient tracking and outcome assessment.
The goal of this project is to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and health impact of delivering Guiding Good Choices, an evidence-based universal prevention program, to parents of 11- and 12-year-old adolescents within the network of primary care clinics associated with two large health care systems.
The goal of this project was to conduct a large, pragmatic trial to examine two population-based programs to prevent suicide attempt. Participants were randomly assigned to continued usual care or usual care supplemented by one of the two prevention programs: an outreach and care management program (via secure messaging and telephone) including structured assessment linked to specific care pathways, or an online psycho-educational program focused on development of emotion regulation skills and prevention of suicidal behaviors, supported by coaching to promote engagement and adherence. The primary outcome was suicide attempt (fatal or non-fatal) during 18 months following enrollment, ascertained automatically from computerized health records.
This study sought to conduct a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of NZSM implementation in real-world clinical settings across 6 large, diverse Mental Health Research Network-affiliated Learning Healthcare Systems providing healthcare for over 9 million individuals each year.