Fall 2020 | Feature
WE'RE HERE
ESTAMOS AQUÍ
In a COVID-19 world, mental health care is perhaps more important than it ever was before.
But like the rest of health care, mental health care in the United States isn’t always accessible. It can be expensive. There’s a stigma associated with seeking care. And, broadly speaking, it’s a field that excludes many.
For years, UNC Greensboro has been committed to transforming the field of mental health through culturally responsive care. It’s an approach that improves outcomes by developing and delivering treatments and interventions that take into account cultural contexts and nuances.
Culturally responsive care isn’t about making assumptions or responding to stereotypes. It means practicing cultural humility and fighting against systemic inequities upon which our mental health care system has been built.
It’s about reducing disparities and making real change in our communities. And Spartans are leading the way, through training, outreach, and research.
A TRADITION OF SERVING THE UNDERSERVED
Historically, the vast majority of psychology research in the U.S. has been conducted by White researchers, with most participants being White and affluent, says Susan Keane, professor of psychology. Most mental health professionals have been White men, although today, the field tends to be dominated by White women.
The result? Many segments of the population are excluded, leaving certain communities and groups more privileged over others. Treatments, often developed by White researchers for White people, are not as effective when applied to other racial and ethnic groups.
Conversations around culturally competent mental health care, often referred to as culturally responsive care, began in the late 1980s. While significant progress has been made in recent decades, more work remains.
“COVID-19 has laid bare the deep disparities that exist in minoritized communities that we’ve all known have been there,” says associate psychology professor Gabriela Livas Stein. “Culturally responsive care is about dismantling these systemic inequalities, while at the same time acknowledging the resilience and strength of these communities.”
UNCG’s approach starts with how it trains its students. Since the late 1980s, UNCG’s clinical psychology program has had a “philosophy of helping the underserved,” says Dr. Keane, who serves as clinical training director.
A new five-year, $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will further this work. The grant aims to recruit, retain, and support the training of clinical psychologists from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds to enter primary care settings and medically underserved communities.
The goal of the grant is twofold: diversify the clinical workforce and address disparities in access. UNCG will team up with a variety of community partners – including Brenner Children’s Hospital in Forsyth County and Moss Street Partnership School in Rockingham County – to offer additional clinical experience to students.
Keane leads the grant, with Dr. Rosemery Nelson-Gray, Dr. Jason Herndon, Dr. Julia Mendez Smith, and Dr. Stein as co-principal investigators.
“It’s important that people from a variety of communities are able to see themselves in this profession. Diversifying the workforce now will help to continue to diversify the workforce long term,” says Herndon, who is director of UNCG’s Psychology Clinic.
“Additionally, while people can absolutely serve communities that are different from them, it’s important for people to have the option to see a mental health care professional who identifies with their community.”
A TRADITION OF SERVING THE UNDERSERVED
“It’s been important for me to work with different communities and help normalize things like anxiety and depression. Language plays a key role in this – we need friendly, accessible language that breaks down some of these terms.”
– PhD candidate Sudheera Ranaweera is one of 11 students in the $2.2M training grant's first cohort.
Historically, the vast majority of psychology research in the U.S. has been conducted by White researchers, with most participants being White and affluent, says Susan Keane, professor of psychology. Most mental health professionals have been White men, although today, the field tends to be dominated by White women.
The result? Many segments of the population are excluded, leaving certain communities and groups more privileged over others. Treatments, often developed by White researchers for White people, are not as effective when applied to other racial and ethnic groups.
Conversations around culturally competent mental health care, often referred to as culturally responsive care, began in the late 1980s. While significant progress has been made in recent decades, more work remains.
“COVID-19 has laid bare the deep disparities that exist in minoritized communities that we’ve all known have been there,” says associate psychology professor Gabriela Livas Stein. “Culturally responsive care is about dismantling these systemic inequalities, while at the same time acknowledging the resilience and strength of these communities.”
UNCG’s approach starts with how it trains its students. Since the late 1980s, UNCG’s clinical psychology program has had a “philosophy of helping the underserved,” says Dr. Keane, who serves as clinical training director.
A new five-year, $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will further this work. The grant aims to recruit, retain, and support the training of clinical psychologists from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds to enter primary care settings and medically underserved communities.
The goal of the grant is twofold: diversify the clinical workforce and address disparities in access. UNCG will team up with a variety of community partners – including Brenner Children’s Hospital in Forsyth County and Moss Street Partnership School in Rockingham County – to offer additional clinical experience to students.
Keane leads the grant, with Dr. Rosemery Nelson-Gray, Dr. Jason Herndon, Dr. Julia Mendez Smith, and Dr. Stein as co-principal investigators.
“It’s important that people from a variety of communities are able to see themselves in this profession. Diversifying the workforce now will help to continue to diversify the workforce long term,” says Herndon, who is director of UNCG’s Psychology Clinic.
“Additionally, while people can absolutely serve communities that are different from them, it’s important for people to have the option to see a mental health care professional who identifies with their community.”
Strong Minds, Strong Communities team members recruit project participants during a local event in September 2020. From left to right in first photo: community health worker Tazeur Matthews, research assistant – and UNCG alumna – Xiadani Avila, graduate research assistant Puja Patel, and community health worker Maria Soledad Aispuru. See more photos on UNCG Research Flickr.
Due to COVID-19, the Strong Minds, Strong Communities intervention is now offered over the phone and via video conferencing. Leslie Estrada, a 2019 UNCG graduate, is one of the study's community health workers.
Stein’s CAMINOS Lab directs several community-engaged projects aimed at increasing access to mental health care. In 2013, they developed and tested “Padres Efectivos,” an intervention for Latinx families raising children with mental health needs. The intervention was a success, and now a version is being disseminated across the state by community partner El Futuro, a nonprofit outpatient clinic based in Durham, North Carolina.
Juan Prandoni, a 2018 graduate who worked under Stein, serves as the training director at El Futuro. He partners with outpatient providers to help get the intervention into the community. “The intervention is interactive. We use role playing in group sessions to teach parents to advocate for their kids at school and in health care settings. We also teach self-care – to do this advocacy you need to take care of yourself,” he explains. “I’ve seen the intervention have such great impacts.
Gonzalez, Stein, Coard, and Kiang (l-r) teamed up to launch One Talk at a Time. Photo: Jan. 2019
A COMMON GOAL
Mental health care is an interdisciplinary field, and as a result, UNCG’s response involves researchers across disciplines – from psychology to human development and families studies to education – and a variety of community partners. It’s a collective effort led by faculty, students, and advocates from diverse backgrounds, but with the same goal: reducing health disparities.
“Culturally relevant care has always been important – before COVID-19, before Black Lives Matter, before all of this,” says Coard.
“There are lots of strategies and interventions and programs that we know can have a positive impact on families and youth, but they have to be relevant to our places and spaces. If you don’t make these interventions so that they speak to diverse populations and their experiences, then you might as well not have them,” says Coard. “We’re taking what we know works, and we’re making it work for diverse families and communities.”
Article by Alyssa Bedrosian
Major photography by Martin Kane
