Kayla Herbell
PhD, RN
Associate Professor
Biography
Dr. Kayla Herbell is an associate professor in the Martha S. Pitzer Center for Women, Children, and Youth at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. Dr. Herbell’s program of research is devoted to optimizing treatment gains for adolescents who access residential treatment by way of providing their caregivers with tailored education and support. Dr. Herbell’s research is inspired by her time working as a staff nurse at a residential treatment center, during which she noticed that adolescents and their families faced a lot of challenges and little support in their transition back to the community. This experience taught her that in order to enact change, population-specific interventions would need to be developed with family input, and health policy enacted for these families' trajectories to change. She now conducts research with parents as partners in the research process, advocates for residential treatment reform through family-focused scholarship and presents her findings to stakeholders in the community to develop evidence-informed policies to improve care. Read her white paper on Family Engagement in Residential Programs and visit her Families in Transition FIT Study website.
- Herbell, K., Breitenstein, S.M., Ault, S., & Price, M. (In Press). Variation in evidence-based practices among youth-serving residential treatment facilities. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. Herbell, K., Breitenstein, S.M., Ault, S., & Eisner, M. (2022). Prevalence and correlates of anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and post-traumatic stress symptoms in parents with adolescents in residential treatment. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth. https://doi.org/10.1080/0886571X.2022.2038338 Herbell, K., & Ault, S., (2021). Differences in treatment approaches by residential treatment facilities. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, 38(3), 224-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/0886571X.2021.1910613 Herbell, K., & Breitenstein, S.(2020). Parenting a child in residential treatment: Mother’s perceptions of programming needs. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 42(7), 639-648. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2020.1836536 Herbell, K., Breitenstein, S., Melnyk, B., & Guo, J. (2020). Family resilience and flourishment: Well-being among children with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Research in Nursing & Health, 43(5),465-477. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22066 Herbell, K., Banks, A.J., Bloom, T., Li, Y., & Bullock, L.F.C. (2020). Priorities for support in mothers of adolescents in residential treatment. Child and Youth Services Review, 110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104805 Herbell, K., Li, Y.,Bloom, T., Sharps, P., & Bullock, L. (2020). Keeping it together for the kids: New mothers’ descriptions of the impact of intimate partner violence on parenting. Child Abuse & Neglect, 99, 104268. DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104268 Herbell, K., & Banks, A.J. (2020). “Fighting tooth and nail”: Mothers’ perspective of barriers to adolescent mental health treatment. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 47(6), 945-945. DOI: 10.1007/s10488-020-01026-1 Kamp, K., Herbell, K., Magginis, W.H., Berry, D. & Given, B. (2019). Facebook recruitment and the protection of human subjects. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(9), 1270-1281. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945919828108
- National Institute of Mental Health 1R34MH126008: Herbell (PI) 12/2022-12/2025 Optimizing residential treatment gains for adolescents through tailored behavioral parent training. This randomized controlled trial will test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of a web-based parent training program augmented with virtual facilitated discussion groups in a sample of parents whose adolescents are transitioning from psychiatric residential treatment to the community.
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences KL2TR002734: Herbell (PI) 8/2022-7/2025 Optimizing adolescent residential treatment gains: Understanding risk in context and intervening through a family-focused intervention. This two-pronged project aims to 1) develop a family engagement intervention through group concept mapping with key stakeholders for parents with adolescents in residential treatment and 2) pilot ecological momentary assessment to determine how treatment gains are maintained in adolescents who have transitioned from residential treatment to the community.
- The Ohio State University College of Nursing Seed Grant: Herbell (PI) 1/2022-6/2023 Leveraging parent and staff perspectives in the design of a family engagement intervention that optimizes treatment gains for adolescents. The purpose of this study is to use a community-based participatory approach to develop a family support intervention that optimizes treatment gains for adolescents post-discharge from residential treatment (RT). Partners on the study include parents, RT staff, and mental health advocates.
- The Ohio State University for Clinical and Translational Sciences Community Engagement and Integrating Special Populations Pilot: Herbell (PI) 06/2021-5/2022 Co-developing a tailored parent training for adolescents who have accessed residential treatment.The purpose of this study is to use mixed methods to develop and pilot test an adapted web-based parent training for parents with adolescents in residential treatment.
- Jonas Philanthropies and Sigma Theta Tau Collaborative: Herbell (PI) 6/2020-5/2021 Determining the influence of parent mental health on two generation outcomes in families with children in residential treatment. The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of parental mental health on severe externalizing symptoms in children in psychiatric residential treatment.
- International Association of Forensic Nurses: Herbell (PI) 4/2020-3/2021 Feasibility and acceptability of Parenting Wisely in parents/guardians with children formerly or currently in residential treatment. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of an evidence-based online parenting intervention, Parenting Wisely in a sample of parents/guardians with children in residential treatment.