Carol Caton, PhD

Carol L.M. Caton, Ph.D. (B.S. Columbia; Ph.D., Medical Sociology, Yale) has held faculty appointments at Yale University School of Medicine, SUNY-Downstate Medical School, and the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University. Dr. Caton is currently Professor of Clinical Public Health (Psychiatry and Sociomedical Sciences), College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and Research Scientist, New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Caton has served as Principal Investigator and Director of a NIMH-funded P30 ACISIR, the Columbia Center for Homelessness Prevention Studies (CHPS), a mental health services research center focused on the development of interventions to prevent chronic homelessness. (www.columbia-chps.org). Scholars from various departments and schools at the NYSPI/Columbia campus and at other research centers in the region have been involved in this multidisciplinary effort, which also included providers, consumers, and policy makers in the areas of homeless services, housing, and mental health care.

Dr. Caton has had a long-standing interest in homelessness and mental illness, and has received considerable external funding for research in this area. She recently completed a NIDA-funded study of HIV risk among homeless women housed in New York City shelters. Dr. Caton is currently collaborating on a NIMH-funded R34 grant to develop a primary care based intervention for depressed homeless mothers, and a NIMH R21 grant to develop a cognitive remediation intervention for homeless youth, designed to improve their employability. Dr. Caton is the author of Homeless in America (Oxford University Press) and she has published extensively on schizophrenia, homelessness, and dual disorders. She participated in the development of Uniting for Solutions Beyond Shelter, the New York City plan to end chronic homelessness. Dr. Caton has presented her work at numerous national and international forums, including the United Nations. She currently serves on the research advisory boards of the New York City Department of Homeless Services and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.