The University of Miami AIDS Research Center on Mental Health and HIV/AIDS - Center for HIV & Research in Mental Health (CHARM) Research Core & MHD-CE

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PROJECT SUMMARY: MENTAL HEALTH DISPARITIES AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CORE (D) The Mental Health Disparities and Community Engagement (MHD-CE) Core in the Center for HIV and Research in Mental Health (CHARM) provides specific services and activities to promote research to understand, assess, and intervene with sociocultural and structural drivers at the intersection of HIV and mental health disparities. Racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minority populations are the least likely to benefit from medical advances in HIV prevention and treatment, and the most susceptible to comorbid HIV-related mental health (MH) problems (including substance use), affecting all aspects of the HIV prevention and care continua. CHARM is located in a US HIV/AIDS epicenter and home to one of the largest populations of racial, ethnic, and sexual/gender minority individuals placed at risk for and living with HIV/AIDS in the nation. The environment includes multiple risks and disadvantages that set the stage for disparities in access to and utilization of HIV and MH services and in HIV/AIDS and MH outcomes. Thus, the MHD-CE Core strives for meaningful local impact as well as nationally contributions in order to end the HIV epidemic. The MHD-CE Core will further expand on our highly successful set of activities as a Developmental ARC such as bringing the expertise of community members to the forefront to directly inform research priorities; sponsoring the “Charming Conversations” Series; partnering with the Dev Core to support a community pilot grant mechanism to fund pilot grants spearheaded by a community-based organization; implementing two consent-to-contact databases (PLWH and community members); and equipping researchers with the tools and expertise to conduct ethical, equitable, and high impact research with marginalized communities. As a Full Center, CHARM’s MHD-CE Core will continue to promote rigorous, multilevel, culturally competent research addressing mental health (MH) struggles faced by communities most impacted by the HIV epidemic due to racism, heterosexism, cisgenderism, and ethnocentrism. This will be accomplished by providing expert consultation from a multidisciplinary team of investigators and clinicians in psychology, public health, psychiatry, education, and medicine with expertise in HIV and mental health inequities and a broad range of MH disorders common to PLWH or at risk for HIV; facilitating and maximizing the impact of community- engaged and responsive mental health and HIV research through bi-directional collaboration of UM investigators with community stakeholders; engaging potential research participants from hard-to-reach populations placed at risk for HIV; informing content and providing access to measures of multi-level and multi- domain constructs relevant to HIV and MH inequities; and hosting a Speakers series. The MHD-CE Core will therefore promote innovative and theory-driven research approaches, stimulating research in synchrony with CHARM’s mission of reducing the impact of mental health and minority health disparities across the HIV prevention and care continua.