VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Suicide Prevention - Dept of Veterans Affairs, Denver/Aurora, CO

Our Colorado site is currently accepting applications for the APA-accredited Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment in Suicide Prevention.

The training faculty currently accepting Fellows are Dr. Lauren Borges, Dr. Bryann DeBeer, and Dr. Adam Kinney.

Dr. Borges is accepting postdoctoral Fellow applications for the Rocky Mountain MIRECC’s APA-Accredited Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment in Suicide Prevention. Dr. Borges’ research program focuses on applications of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to disrupt moral injury and suicidal behavior. Dr. Borges co-leads a lab with Dr. Sean Barnes and the Fellow would have the opportunity to contribute to their currently funded projects including:

• Examining the impacts of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Moral Injury (ACT-MI) and Present Centered Therapy for Moral Injury (PCT-MI) on Veteran psychosocial functioning through a national efficacy trial;
• A project focused on determining the acceptability and feasibility of ACT for VA health care providers (ACT-HCP) who struggle with moral distress related to their work providing medical or mental health care;
• A multi-site efficacy trial of an application of ACT for suicide prevention among Veterans hospitalized in VA inpatient mental health units.

In addition, the Fellow will receive clinical training and accrue hours towards licensure in the Rocky Mountain MIRECC’s local Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program service. Finally, the Fellow will have the opportunity to lead guided research projects and contribute to publications.

Fellows working with Dr. DeBeer would have the opportunity to work on several projects. Dr. DeBeer directs the VA Patient Safety Center of Inquiry – Suicide Prevention Collaborative, which is a national suicide prevention research center within the VA. As a part of this work, Dr. DeBeer and her colleagues have developed a novel Veteran suicide prevention learning collaborative that aids community agencies in building suicide prevention programs in their own organization. The Fellow would have the opportunity to be involved in implementation activities. Dr. DeBeer is also developing and testing two new interventions:

• A lethal means safety intervention that involves a concerned significant other;
• An intervention that follows Veterans who are “dual-users” (e.g., receive both VA and community care).
   

The Fellow would also have the ability to contribute to publications based on this research.

Dr. Kinney is accepting Postdoctoral Fellow applications for the Rocky Mountain MIRECC’s Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment in Suicide Prevention. Dr. Kinney’s research focuses on improving the implementation and delivery of evidence-based care for Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI), with particular interests in sleep and cognitive rehabilitation. The Fellow would have the opportunity to contribute to several ongoing projects, including:

• Implementing Sleep MAPP, a clinical decision-support intervention designed to improve identification and guideline-concordant treatment of insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea among Veterans, including those receiving care in the VA Polytrauma/TBI System of Care;
• Implementing occupation-based metacognitive strategy training to improve everyday functioning among Veterans with TBI and executive dysfunction;
• Identifying barriers and facilitators to implementation of evidence-based practices across VA clinical settings;
  Leveraging VA health care data to examine access to and delivery of guideline-concordant sleep and rehabilitation care.
   

Additionally, the Fellow will have opportunities to lead guided research projects and contribute to publications.

Contact: General inquiries regarding the Fellowship and application materials for the Colorado Fellowship position(s) may be e-mailed to Dr. Lauren Borges at [email protected].

Please visit the website for additional information: https://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn19/fellowship/denver.asp

(This page was last updated on 9/2/2026)