Academic Title(s)

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Bio

Stacey L. Barrenger, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at NEOMED. She received her PhD in Social Welfare from the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining NEOMED, she was an Assistant Professor at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.

Dr. Barrenger’s work focuses on the intersection of mental illness and social problems (criminal justice involvement, substance use, homelessness, & poverty). She is also interested in implementation research that considers the community or structural factors that can impact the effectiveness of empirically supported treatments in under-resourced communities.

Dr. Barrenger’s clinical experience in community mental health informs her current research agenda. She hopes to increase student’s understanding of the social and structural conditions that impact individual health and healthcare practices.

Area of Expertise/Research Interests

Dr. Barrenger’s current focus of research is on community reentry from jail and prison for individuals with mental illnesses. She is developing a multilevel intervention that addresses the social-structural production of recidivism risk during reentry, supports individual recovery and desistance pathways, and utilizes peer support specialists to promote community integration. Research projects supporting this intervention development include examining incarceration healthcare experiences; understanding the role of hope, self-efficacy, and identity in the processes of recovery and desistance; and using critical participatory research methods to examine the role of education, gentrification, and housing instability and homelessness in the lives of returning citizens.

Educational Background

• Ph.D., Social Welfare, University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice, 2013
• A.M. (MSW equivalent), University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, 2008

Presentations

• 2020 Barrenger, S. Kriegel, L., Canada, K., & Blank Wilson, A. Recidivism, treatment, and quality of life outcomes in research on prison and jail reentry for persons with mental illnesses: A scoping review. Annual Conference for the Society of Social Work Research, Washington D. C., January 14-17.
• 2019 Barrenger, S., Canada, K., & Bohrman, C. Barriers to accessing prison health care for adults with mental illnesses: The role of stigma and correctional officers. American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting and Expo, Philadelphia, PA, November 3-10.
• 2019 Barrenger, S. Hope, identity, and self-efficacy: Underlying mechanisms of recovery and desistance guiding community reentry from prison for persons with mental illnesses. 36th Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Rome, Italy, July 21-26.
• 2017 Barrenger, S. Understanding pathways to desistance for offenders with mental illness. 73rd Annual Meeting of The American Society of Criminology, Philadelphia, PA, November 11-15.
• 2016 Barrenger, S. L. “You just talk to people like they’re people”: Engagement strategies of peer specialists with criminal justice histories. NIMH Conference on Mental Health Services Research, Bethesda, MD, August 9-12.

Publications

• 2020 Barrenger, S. L., Maurer, K., Moore, K., & Hong, I.*Mental health recovery through training and working: peer specialists with mental health and criminal justice experiences. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, (online first) doi: 10.1037/ort0000450
• 2019 Barrenger, S. L., Hamovitch, E. *, & Rothman, M.* Enacting lived experience: Peer specialists with criminal justice histories. Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 49, 9-16. doi: 10.1037/prj0000327
• 2017 Barrenger, S., Draine, J., Angell, B., & Herman, D. Reincarceration risk among men with mental illnesses leaving prison: A risk environment analysis. Community Mental Health Journal, 53, 883-892. doi: 10.1007/s10597-017-0113-z
• 2016 Barrenger, S., Kriegel, L.*, Angell, B., & Draine, J. Role of context, resources, and target population in fidelity of Critical Time Intervention. Psychiatric Services, 67, 115-118. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201400108
• 2013 Barrenger, S. L. & Draine, J. You don’t get no help: the role of community context in effectiveness of evidence-based treatments for people with mental illnesses leaving prison. American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 16, 154-178.