Current Projects: Mental health training and community therapist factors
Study Title: Identification of facilitators, barriers, and modifications when implementing the unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders in adolescents (up-a) with diverse families in community settings
Study Status: Analysis and manuscript preparation
This study is the qualitative arm of an NIMH funded randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of two interventions: the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents (UP-A), and a measurement feedback tool that tracks youth symptoms and therapeutic alliance (R01MH106536 & R01 MH106657). This study aims to identify and examine barriers, facilitators and modifications in the implementation of a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral approach for adolescents with emotional disorders (the UP-A) from the perspectives of frontline providers in community settings. Previous studies have explored factors associated with the successful implementation of evidence-based treatments in community settings, but no study to date has examined the challenges faced by frontline providers implementing a transdiagnostic CBT approach for adolescents. Gathering perspectives of frontline providers, especially ones working with ethnically and economically diverse families, will lead to better understanding the process of implementing transdiagnostic approaches in non-university, uncontrolled settings. Increasing our knowledge of the perspectives of community therapists will help determine how to facilitate and enhance future efforts to implement transdiagnostic CBT approaches in community settings.
Study Title: Cognitive-behavioral therapy competence of community therapists serving Spanish-speaking clients
Study Status: Analysis and manuscript preparation
The Spanish-speaking Latinx population in the U.S. continues to grow. Thus, more Latinx clients are seeking mental health services in Spanish. Despite an increased demand for mental health services in Spanish, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) training is almost exclusively available in English both during graduate and post-graduate education. Lack of access to CBT in Spanish partly contributes to mental health care access inequities for Latinx people. In this study, we compared the CBT abilities of therapists who reported treating Spanish-speaking clients to therapists treating only English-speaking populations in the context of a 6-month CBT training that was mostly available in Spanish.
Study Title: Systematic review of the therapeutic experiences of bilingual mental health providers
Study Status: Conceptualization and development
Description coming soon.