Community at the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine

One of the primary goals of the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine (CBPM) is to create an environment that welcomes and values all individuals that can come together as a professional community.

We build on this community within our center and beyond.

Community building is a great way to share ideas, learn from each other's experiences, and build relationships that can ultimately benefit CBPM as a whole.

Community Building

We are always looking for ways to consciously build community. For example, one CBPM Community Initiative is Coffee with a Colleague, which supports expanding professional connections within CBPM by treating colleagues to coffee and treats at a local coffee shop.

The goal of this initiative is to provide a casual and comfortable environment for colleagues to connect and get to know each other outside of the office. It's a great way to share ideas, learn from each other's experiences, and build relationships that can ultimately benefit CBPM as a whole. This initiative has been successful in fostering a sense of camaraderie and collaboration among CBPM employees, and we are always looking for new ways to strengthen our community.

CBPM's Broader Network

CBPM is a center in The Miriam Hospital and Brown University Health healthcare system with strong connections in the Brown University system and community. This includes partnerships with the Brown School of Public Health, the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University via Brown Psychiatry and Human Behavior (DPHB), and Care New England, among others.

Graphic diagram illustrating the larger community to which the Center for Behavior and Preventive Medicine belongs

CBPM engages in impactful research and collaborations with various healthcare systems and centers, including the following collaborations and affiliations.

CBPM’s Research and Impact on Communities

At CBPM, our research directly impacts the community, as many of our studies are community-based. We partner with organizations like the YMCA and Planned Parenthood to introduce new assessment and intervention strategies. Our team frequently develops new interventions that we share with community members. For instance, we're examining whether yoga can aid smoking cessation and if tai chi is a more acceptable method of cardiac rehab. In most cases, we recruit participants from the community, invite them to the hospital, provide them with a state-of-the-science intervention, and evaluate the results. Our interventions are available before they're available elsewhere, and they're almost always free of charge. Simultaneously, we're investigating the benefits.

CBPM prioritizes impactful research for communities locally in Rhode Island, nationally, and internationally.

Recently, a group of CBPM faculty received a grant from The Miriam Hospital for a proposal, "Single Session Mental Health Interventions to Address the Post-Pandemic Mental Health Crisis: A Community-Engaged Approach." The objective is to develop infrastructure to leverage the clinical expertise of CBPM clinical providers to better address the mental health crisis in Rhode Island. Our approach is a fantastic opportunity for eligible participants to obtain a potentially new method of care. They can also contribute to vital research that may influence clinical care and preventive medicine across the country and worldwide.