Â鶹¹ÙÍø-TTUHSC El Paso Study Focuses on Hispanic Mental Health Disparities
Last Updated on July 15, 2022 at 12:00 AM
Originally published July 15, 2022
By MC Staff
Â鶹¹ÙÍø Marketing and Communications
Project is first winner of Sobel-Duncan Award, will research Hispanics’ use of mental health services
The research will be supported by the inaugural Sobel-Duncan Award, a grant program run collaboratively by Â鶹¹ÙÍø and TTUHSC El Paso to spur research into health conditions affecting Hispanics.
The award recipients are Jason Mallonee, DSW, Â鶹¹ÙÍø assistant professor of social work, and Eden Robles, Ph.D., director of education and research development for the Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program within the TTUHSC El Paso Department of Psychiatry. Mallonee and Robles jointly received a grant of $40,000. They will be joined by Nancy Ramirez, Psy.D., a TTUHSC El Paso instructor of psychiatry, in implementing the study.
“Our goal is to develop a mental health engagement program that is grounded in this community,” Mallonee said. “Previous studies haven't really focused on our population, and we know there are very specific and unique challenges in this region. Ultimately, we hope to increase people’s ability to seek and receive mental health services.”
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2020, only 35% of Hispanic adults in the United States with mental health conditions received professional treatment, compared to approximately 52% of white (non-Hispanic) adults. Additionally, a 2013 study by researchers from Harvard Medical School found that, of those who do receive treatment, Hispanic adults tend to experience shorter episodes of care and poorer quality of care, as well as fewer referrals to therapy than white adults.
“This situation is likely due to a variety of factors that include both structural barriers, such as lack of insurance, and stigma-related barriers,” Robles said. “In Hispanic families, it’s not uncommon to respond to mental health issues with a mindset of ‘We're going to keep this in the family, and we're not going to share our family problems with the world.’”
As Robles explained, these barriers create a higher potential for untreated mental health conditions, which are associated with negative outcomes such as homelessness and incarceration, poor physical health and substance use.
The researchers aim to develop and pilot-test a culturally responsive mental health engagement program, delivered in a nontraditional way, and bundled with other social services. The effort will be based on data collected during a series of focus group sessions held earlier this year at the Kelly Center for Hunger Relief, a food pantry in Central El Paso where the overwhelming majority of clients are Hispanic.
“I expect our collaboration to build on each other’s experience and expertise, and ultimately increase engagement in mental health treatment and reduce stigma in border communities,” Ramirez said. “This collaboration between our institutions will advance our research, which is much needed to improve the well-being of the people of West Texas.”
The researchers’ vision is to create a program composed of three pillars: education to help participants recognize the signs of mental health conditions, support to navigate the array of mental health services, and emotional support. The program will be implemented over several months with volunteer participants chosen from a pool of food pantry clients.
By mid-2023, the researchers aim to have enough data to apply for a larger grant from the National Institute of Mental Health or the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to scale up the program so it can be implemented at other food pantries or community agencies that provide social services other than mental health support.
The Sobel-Duncan Award was established in April 2022 with a donation from Annette Sobel, M.D., adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and adjunct professor in the Department of Medical Education and in the School of Nursing at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock; and Robert Duncan, Ph.D., professor and president’s distinguished chair in physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas Tech University. The award aims to fund research that contributes to the improvement of health conditions for residents of the Paso del Norte region and other parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 94% of our more than 24,000 students are minorities, and half are the first in their families to go to college. Â鶹¹ÙÍø offers 168 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
About Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso
TTUHSC El Paso is the only health sciences center on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas that have been historically underserved. It is designated as a Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, preparing the next generation of health care heroes, 48% of whom identify as Hispanic and are often first-generation college students.
Research conducted in TTUHSC El Paso’s four Centers of Emphasis focuses on conditions directly impacting Hispanic populations, including diabetes, cancer, infectious diseases and neurological disorders. University researchers also study health disparities, helping to meet health care challenges in the Borderplex region.
