Melissa J. Zielinski
Associate Professor
faculty
PSY Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Research Areas
Links
Biography and Research Information
OverviewAI-generated summary
Melissa J. Zielinski is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she directs the Health and the Legal System Lab (HEALS Lab). Her research investigates the connections between trauma, mental health, substance use, and interactions with the criminal legal system. The HEALS Lab focuses on identifying effective interventions and promoting recovery within legal settings such as prisons, jails, and drug courts.
Dr. Zielinski’s work has been supported by federal funding, including grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Arnold Ventures, and the Department of Justice. Her federal grant portfolio totals over $3.2 million, with awards supporting translational training in addiction, implementation science for trauma treatment in correctional settings, and the effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy in prisons. She has also received funding for developing and testing innovative care pathways for screening and treating opioid use disorder and PTSD in jails.
Her scholarship includes 87 publications and over 1,000 citations, with an h-index of 18. Recent publications explore topics such as tele-integrated care, implementation science in correctional health, formerly incarcerated women's perspectives on healthcare, and the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Zielinski collaborates with researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Research Overview
Dr. Zielinski’s research centers on the intersections between trauma, mental health, substance use, and involvement with the criminal legal system. She directs the Health and the Legal System Lab (HEALS Lab), a diverse group of scholars and clinical trainees that are dedicated to making trauma recovery services available in legal settings like prisons, jails, drug courts, and crime victim service settings. HEALS Lab’s cutting-edge science is helping to identify how to best intervene, how to get treatments that work in to these systems, and how to promote long-term recovery. This work has been supported by a variety of funders including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Arnold Ventures, and the Department of Justice. Our clinical trainees and director also provide evidence-based therapy groups directly to maximize our immediate impact.
Metrics
- h-index: 18
- Publications: 87
- Citations: 1,101
Selected Publications
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Centering the client in PTSD treatments: Commentary on Rubenstein et al. (2024). (2026)
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Gatekeeping Wellbeing: Healthcare Copayments While Incarcerated as a Barrier to Good Health (2025)
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Increased risk of non-fatal overdose associated with broad adverse childhood experiences among people who use drugs in New York City: a latent class analysis (2025)
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Health service needs, use, and barriers among formerly incarcerated women survivors of sexual violence (2025)
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A qualitative analysis of formerly incarcerated women’s perspectives on a prison-based perinatal support program (2025)
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Treatment Works, Behaviors Change: Investigating the Impact of Trauma Focused Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder on Disciplinary Infractions Among Women in Prison (2025)
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The Arkansas Crisis Stabilization Study: Health Service Utilization and Jail Booking Outcomes of a Longitudinal Cohort (2025)
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256 Identifying causes of parenting stress among postpartum mothers receiving medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) (2025)
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Community-driven strategies for implementing suicide prevention education in jails. (2025)
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The COVID Shift: Comparing Hybrid Telehealth to In-Person Group Therapy for Incarcerated Women Survivors of Sexual Violence Victimization (2025)
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A Novel Exploration of Women’s Pathways Through Prison and the Roles of Trauma, Addiction, and Mental Health (2025)
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Is Sharing One’s Personal Story of Victimization Preferred? Incarcerated Women’s Perspectives on Group Treatment for Sexual Trauma (2024)
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Arkansas crisis stabilization unit guests: Baseline characteristics from a longitudinal cohort study. (2024)
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Mental Health, Drug Use, and Programming: Applying a Needs Assessment Framework in Arkansas’ Largest Jail (2024)
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To SHARE or not to SHARE: Exploring incarcerated women’s decisions about enrolling in exposure-based group therapy. (2024)
Federal Grants 5 $3,292,012 total
Effectiveness, Implementation, and Cost of Cognitive Processing Therapy in Prisons
Developing and Testing Innovative Care Pathways for Screening and Treatment of OUD/PTSD in Jails
Developing and Testing Innovative Care Pathways for Screening and Treatment of OUD/PTSD in Jails
Leveraging Implementation Science to Increase Access to Trauma Treatment for Incarcerated Drug Users
Grants & Funding
- Translational Training in Addiction NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- Effectiveness, Implementation, and Cost of Cognitive Processing Therapy in Prisons NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- NOTRE: optimiziNg long-acting prep and mOud inTerventions in caRceral sEttings NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse - Pass Through: Duke University Principal Investigator
- Translational Training in Addiction NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- Developing and Testing Innovative Care Pathways for Screening and Treatment of OUD/PTSD in Jails NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- Effectiveness, Implementation, and Cost of Cognitive Processing Therapy in Prisons NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- Translational Training in Addiction NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
- Translational Training in Addiction NIH/Nat. Inst. on Drug Abuse Principal Investigator
Collaboration Network
Top Collaborators
- An integrative literature review of substance use treatment service need and provision to pregnant and postpartum populations in carceral settings
- A participant-randomized pilot hybrid II trial of group cognitive processing therapy for incarcerated persons with posttraumatic stress and substance use disorder symptoms: study protocol and rationale
- Implementation of group cognitive processing therapy in correction centers: Anticipated determinants from formative evaluation
- State Laws on Substance Use Treatment for Incarcerated Pregnant and Postpartum People
- Characteristics and Outcomes of Women and Infants Who Received Prenatal Care While Incarcerated in Arkansas State Prison System, 2014–2019
Showing 5 of 13 shared publications
- Decreases in psychiatric symptoms persist following exposure-based group therapy for sexual violence victimization among incarcerated women.
- A qualitative analysis of formerly incarcerated women’s perspectives on a prison-based perinatal support program
- Developing and Testing Innovative Care Pathways for Screening and Treatment of OUD/PTSD in Jails
- Peer Support
- Treatment
Showing 5 of 8 shared publications
- ‘You’re setting a lot of people up for failure’: what formerly incarcerated women would tell healthcare decision makers
- Factors Affecting Telemedicine Implementation in Emergency Departments and Nurses’ Perceptions of Virtual Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Consultation for Sexual Assault Survivors
- Implementation of group cognitive processing therapy in correction centers: Anticipated determinants from formative evaluation
- Justice-Involved, Sexually Victimized Women's Perspectives on the Acceptability of Receiving Trauma-Focused Therapy in Prison
- Emergency Department Nurses’ Perceptions of Patient Substance Use, Impact on Sexual Assault Care, and Access to Follow-up Behavioral Health Resources
Showing 5 of 8 shared publications
- “I’m not alone, my story matters”: Incarcerated women’s perspectives on the impact and acceptability of group psychotherapy involving imaginal exposure to sexual assault memories
- Does Group Size Matter? Group Size and Symptom Reduction among Incarcerated Women Receiving Psychotherapy following Sexual Violence Victimization
- Decreases in psychiatric symptoms persist following exposure-based group therapy for sexual violence victimization among incarcerated women.
- Is Sharing One’s Personal Story of Victimization Preferred? Incarcerated Women’s Perspectives on Group Treatment for Sexual Trauma
- To SHARE or not to SHARE: Exploring incarcerated women’s decisions about enrolling in exposure-based group therapy.
Showing 5 of 7 shared publications
- “I’m not alone, my story matters”: Incarcerated women’s perspectives on the impact and acceptability of group psychotherapy involving imaginal exposure to sexual assault memories
- Does Group Size Matter? Group Size and Symptom Reduction among Incarcerated Women Receiving Psychotherapy following Sexual Violence Victimization
- Decreases in psychiatric symptoms persist following exposure-based group therapy for sexual violence victimization among incarcerated women.
- Is Sharing One’s Personal Story of Victimization Preferred? Incarcerated Women’s Perspectives on Group Treatment for Sexual Trauma
- To SHARE or not to SHARE: Exploring incarcerated women’s decisions about enrolling in exposure-based group therapy.
Showing 5 of 7 shared publications
- A participant-randomized pilot hybrid II trial of group cognitive processing therapy for incarcerated persons with posttraumatic stress and substance use disorder symptoms: study protocol and rationale
- Acceptability of a Community Health Worker Program to Link High-Risk People in Jail to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
- Crisis stabilization units for jail diversion: A preliminary assessment of patient characteristics and outcomes.
- An Economic Analysis of the Cost of a Regional Crisis Stabilization Unit
- Recommendations for conducting longitudinal studies with people who are justice involved
Showing 5 of 7 shared publications
- Crisis stabilization units for jail diversion: A preliminary assessment of patient characteristics and outcomes.
- An Economic Analysis of the Cost of a Regional Crisis Stabilization Unit
- Recommendations for conducting longitudinal studies with people who are justice involved
- Arkansas crisis stabilization unit guests: Baseline characteristics from a longitudinal cohort study.
- The Arkansas Crisis Stabilization Study: Health Service Utilization and Jail Booking Outcomes of a Longitudinal Cohort
- Factors Affecting Telemedicine Implementation in Emergency Departments and Nurses’ Perceptions of Virtual Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Consultation for Sexual Assault Survivors
- Evidence-Based Quality Improvement (EBQI) in the pre-implementation phase: key steps and activities
- A participant-randomized pilot hybrid II trial of group cognitive processing therapy for incarcerated persons with posttraumatic stress and substance use disorder symptoms: study protocol and rationale
- Implementation of group cognitive processing therapy in correction centers: Anticipated determinants from formative evaluation
- Emergency Department Nurses’ Perceptions of Patient Substance Use, Impact on Sexual Assault Care, and Access to Follow-up Behavioral Health Resources
- Recommendations for conducting longitudinal studies with people who are justice involved
- Justice-Involved, Sexually Victimized Women's Perspectives on the Acceptability of Receiving Trauma-Focused Therapy in Prison
- Arkansas crisis stabilization unit guests: Baseline characteristics from a longitudinal cohort study.
- The COVID Shift: Comparing Hybrid Telehealth to In-Person Group Therapy for Incarcerated Women Survivors of Sexual Violence Victimization
- Health service needs, use, and barriers among formerly incarcerated women survivors of sexual violence
- Policy and public communication methods among U.S. state prisons during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Community-driven strategies for implementing suicide prevention education in jails.
- COVID-19 highlights the pitfalls of reliance on the carceral system as a response to addiction
- To SHARE or not to SHARE: Exploring incarcerated women’s decisions about enrolling in exposure-based group therapy.
- Crisis stabilization units for jail diversion: A preliminary assessment of patient characteristics and outcomes.
- An Economic Analysis of the Cost of a Regional Crisis Stabilization Unit
- Recommendations for conducting longitudinal studies with people who are justice involved
- Mental Health, Drug Use, and Programming: Applying a Needs Assessment Framework in Arkansas’ Largest Jail
- Mental Health, Drug Use, and Programming: Applying a Needs Assessment Framework in Arkansas’ Largest Jail
- Arkansas crisis stabilization unit guests: Baseline characteristics from a longitudinal cohort study.
- Community-driven strategies for implementing suicide prevention education in jails.
- The Arkansas Crisis Stabilization Study: Health Service Utilization and Jail Booking Outcomes of a Longitudinal Cohort
- Comparison of Teleintegrated Care and Telereferral Care for Treating Complex Psychiatric Disorders in Primary Care
- A participant-randomized pilot hybrid II trial of group cognitive processing therapy for incarcerated persons with posttraumatic stress and substance use disorder symptoms: study protocol and rationale
- Implementation of group cognitive processing therapy in correction centers: Anticipated determinants from formative evaluation
- ‘You’re setting a lot of people up for failure’: what formerly incarcerated women would tell healthcare decision makers
- Perceived emotion invalidation predicts daily affect and stressors
- The Arkansas Crisis Stabilization Study: Health Service Utilization and Jail Booking Outcomes of a Longitudinal Cohort
- Policy and public communication methods among U.S. state prisons during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Acceptability of a Community Health Worker Program to Link High-Risk People in Jail to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
- Gatekeeping Wellbeing: Healthcare Copayments While Incarcerated as a Barrier to Good Health
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