New Mexico Mental Health Mentorship/Education Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The New Mexico Mentorship and Education Program (MEP) focuses on minority mental health issues in primary care settings, especially disparities in mental health outcomes. An intensive, one-week annual training institute introduces mental health services research to minority junior faculty members and graduate students from Southwest institutions. The MEP also enhances ongoing mentorship relationships with outstanding mental health researchers. The NIMH National Advisory Mental Health Council has designated the MEP as a high program priority. By this competitive continuation application, we will strengthen the successful program by expanding it in two important ways: a) By recruiting minority primary care practitioners (PCPs) based at community health centers, the MEP will address the importance of "translational" research to bridge the nationally recognized gap between research and real-life practice settings, b) A new component will lead to recruitment of minority researchers and mentors who focus on geriatric mental health services in minority populations. The MEP's specific aims are as follows: 1) Due to the difficulties that minority junior faculty members, graduate students, and practitioners have experienced in obtaining suitable training that helps them compete for research support, we will teach trainees basic research methods in this field, with an emphasis on how to write proposals and manage funded proposals. 2) To enhance the translation of research into real life practice settings, we will introduce university-based and community-based trainees to important recent findings of mental health services research, with special emphasis on research concerning the disparities in mental health outcomes that affect minority populations of the Southwest. 3) Because of the isolation and marginalization experienced by young minority researchers, we will establish networks among these trainees and nationally prominent research mentors. 4) Recognizing the challenges that minority graduate students, faculty members, and practitioners face in obtaining and retaining work positions that foster research activities, we will help trainees with various aspects of "career development." 5) Due to the difficulties of organizing training programs in the many locations where junior minority researchers live and work, we will produce a minority-oriented mental health services research curriculum that is exportable to other educational institutions and primary care practice sites. 6) To facilitate continuity of training and mentoring as junior investigators try to advance in their careers, we will initiate an ongoing sequence of training sessions in mental health services research on an annual basis. 7) Because of the sparse research conducted about the mental health problems of minority elders, we will initiate a new emphasis on mental health services research focusing on the older, minority populations of the Southwest.