PROMOTING URBAN CHILD MENTAL HEALTH & SERVICE USE

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This is a request for an NIMH Independent Scientist Award. It will enable the applicant to develop a research career plan which focuses on examining factors that influence the mental health of low-income African American children as well as their involvement in mental health prevention and intervention programs. An additional aim is to develop and test the impact of engagement interventions on both initial and ongoing involvement in child mental health focused programs. This program of research builds upon two federally funded studies and extensive research experience in the area of urban child mental health. Plans have been developed for consultation and participation in advanced scientific education to achieve the following objective: 1) immersing the applicant in specifying the perspectives of urban children and their caregivers in relation to involvement in mental health programs through the use of existing data and a process of ongoing collaboration with urban parents; 2) continuing to develop a sophisticated understanding of advanced basic and intervention research designs and methods; 3) advancing my abilities to bring the most sophisticated statistical methods to data already gathered from low income, African American children and families and; 4) preparing myself to conduct child mental health focused studies within urban, community-based settings. An Independent Scientist Award at this stage of applicants career will support a social work investigator in providing leadership in: 1) advancing empirically supported practice specifically focused in the area of child mental health; 2) mentoring pre and post-doctoral social work students in the development of research skills, particularly focused on meeting the needs of urban children and families; 3) supporting junior social work faculty members as they begin early child mental health services research efforts; 4) providing research data that represents the perspective of a highly vulnerable, often significantly under-represented population of children and their families to the field of mental health and; 5) advocating for multi-disciplinary research efforts that concentrate on the development of an ecologically grounded understanding of the multiple influences on child mental health and service use.