Welcome to the Steven J. Sharp Center for Mental Health Innovation

Mental health problems in children and teens are on the rise in the U.S., rippling across families and communities. Many follow young people well into adulthood.

But at OHSU’s Steven J. Sharp Center for Mental Health Innovation, we have reason to hope. CMHI's more than 50 scientists and research partners are making rapid progress in understanding the biological and environmental causes of mental health disorders.

Your support can make all the difference in transforming mental health care. The more we understand how mental health disorders affect children's brains, the better we can help.  

What is the Center for Mental Health Innovation?

At CMHI, our team uses leading-edge technology to study how both healthy and at-risk brains work.

When our center was founded, we focused on studying ADHD in children. We soon realized that symptoms applied to many mental health problems, including:

• Bipolar disorder
• Substance use
• Anxiety
• Depression

Mental health and behavioral health are complex conditions. That's why today our researchers study fields including:

• Neuroscience
• Genetics
• Nutrition
• Clinical psychology
• Early child development
• Data analysis and machine learning

Why we focus on mental health

One in four Americans will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives. Oregon is no exception. Our state has some of the country's highest rates of suicide, mental health disorders and substance use.

Conditions like ADHD, depression and anxiety affect more than 17 million children in the U.S. As a society, we spend $35 billion a year in educational help for kids with ADHD, plus $25 billion a year on health care.

Even when we manage ADHD symptoms with medication, children with ADHD are at higher risk throughout their lives for:

• Suicide attempts
• Car accidents
• Substance use
• Incarceration
• Severe depression

We need to understand what's happening in children's brains so we can prevent, treat and even cure these conditions.