Multicultural Mental Health
Program Description
Eliminating racial/ethnic and cultural-linguistic disparities in the delivery, quality and utilization of health care services has emerged as a national and Massachusetts Department of Mental Health priority.
Our multicultural research and dissemination activities focus on developing knowledge and culturally-informed interventions aimed at promoting behavioral health and wellness among members of racial/ethnic minority, immigrant populations and the Deaf Community.
Current areas of research
- The development and evaluation of culturally- and linguistically-tailored interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder and co-occurring disorders, tobacco dependence treatment, and addiction treatment.
- Innovations in addiction treatment.
- Improving access to behavioral health services and vocational rehabilitation programs.
Researchers |
|---|
Melissa L. Anderson, Ph.D.Associate Professor of Psychiatry, & Director of DeafYES! Center for Deaf Empowerment and Recovery |
Stephenie C. Lemon, Ph.D., M.S.Professor of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine |
Alex Wilkins, Ph.DAssistant Professor of Psychiatry, & Researcher for DeafYES! Center for Deaf Empowerment and Recovery |
We are interested in
- Promoting clinical services, research, and evaluation initiatives for improving health and wellness among sociolinguistic minority groups.
- Providing expertise to community health organizations on culturally-competent implementation of evidence based treatments for racial/ethnic minority clients, immigrant clients, and Deaf American Sign Language users.
- Conducting rigorous research to develop, adapt, and evaluate culturally- and linguistically-accessible behavioral health interventions.
- Translating knowledge gained from our research into recommendations for public policy and clinical practice.
Ongoing Research
Deaf Motivational Enhancement Therapy (Deaf- MET)
Dates: 9/10/21 - 8/31/26
Funder: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Funding: $155,667
PI: Alex Wilkins, Ph.D.
Description
The U.S. Deaf community – a group of more than 500,000 Americans who communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) – experiences nearly triple the rate of lifetime problem drinking compared to the general population. Yet, there are no therapy approaches that have been developed and formally tested to treat problem drinking or alcohol use disorder among Deaf clients. The proposed K23 study will begin to address this gap by supporting the development and preliminary validation of Deaf Motivational Enhancement Therapy (Deaf- MET), a Deaf-accessible pre-treatment for alcohol use disorder.
Sign Here: How to Conduct Informed Consent with Deaf Individuals
Dates: 3/1/2021 - 2/28/2023
Funder: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Funding: $476,102
PI: Melissa Anderson, Ph.D.
Description
The U.S. Deaf community – a minority group of more than 500,000 people who use American Sign Language (ASL) – is one of the most understudied and underserved populations within our nation’s healthcare system. Reasons for this underrepresentation include lack of language access and feelings of mistrust toward the medical community. We propose to refine and test two training interventions – one for healthcare providers and one for clinical researchers – that teach professionals how to skillfully and sensitively interact with Deaf individuals, especially during the informed consent process. Results will inform a large national study that will test the effectiveness of our training interventions in real-world academic and clinical settings with a range of available training resources.
Supplement Piloting Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Therapy Toolkit for Alcohol Use Disorder and Trauma
Title: Supplement Piloting Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Therapy Toolkit for Alcohol Use Disorder and Trauma
Dates: 9/1/2019-7/31/2021
Funder: NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Funding: $438,956
PI: Melissa Anderson, Ph.D.
Description
This diversity supplement supports the mentorship and training of postdoctoral fellow under award R34AA026929, “Piloting Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Therapy Toolkit for AUD and Trauma.” The 11-month program of formal postdoctoral training, hands-on research experiences, and interdisciplinary mentorship activities will advance the postdoctoral fellow towards their goal of becoming an NIAAA-funded researcher who creates and disseminates Deaf-accessible, evidence-based alcohol treatment interventions. Our lab at UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) is ideally and uniquely suited to provide these formative professional development experiences, as we are currently spearheading the first-ever behavior therapy randomized controlled trial (RCT) within the Deaf population.
Piloting Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Therapy Toolkit for Alcohol Use Disorder and Trauma
Title: Piloting Signs of Safety: A Deaf-Accessible Therapy Toolkit for Alcohol Use Disorder and Trauma
Dates: 8/12/2018-7/31/2021
Funder: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Funding: $722,343
PI: Melissa Anderson, Ph.D.
Description
The U.S. Deaf community – a group of more than 500,000 Americans who communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) – experiences nearly triple the rate of lifetime problem drinking and twice the rate of trauma exposure compared to the general population. Although there are validated treatments for alcohol use disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in hearing populations, there are no evidence-based treatments for any behavioral health condition for use with Deaf clients. To address these barriers, our team developed Signs of Safety, a Deaf-accessible therapy toolkit for treating alcohol use disorder and PTSD. Our proposed aims are to conduct a two-arm pilot randomized controlled trial of Signs of Safety and to collect data on feasibility, preliminary clinical outcomes, and potential mediators and moderators of outcome.
