CRISOL Mente: A Multilevel Community Intervention to Reduce Mental Health Disparities Among Latinos

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Latinos in the U.S. experience significant disparities in access to mental health services due to lack of health insurance, cost of services, limited awareness of mental health resources, mental health stigma, and fear of deportation. Limited English proficiency coupled with an acute lack of bilingual and culturally competent providers further impede Latinos’ adequate access to quality mental health services. The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the need for mental health care and exacerbated mental health disparities for Latino communities, making it urgent to identify low-cost, effective strategies to reduce these gaps. This 5-year project seeks to develop and test a multi-level, community intervention to improve mental health outcomes and promote access to culturally appropriate mental health treatment for Latino communities in Philadelphia. CRISOL Mente will include components at various levels of the socio-ecological model: a clinic-based, stepped-care program relying on Latino lay health workers (LHW) for the delivery of mental health services (Aim 1), outreach and education activities to reduce mental health stigma in the community (Aim 2), and efforts to strengthen Latino-serving organizations’ capacity to address mental health and other syndemic conditions contributing to untreated mental health among Latinos (Aim 3). To improve mental health symptoms and engagement in care, we will recruit, train and supervise a cohort of Latino LHW who will be embedded into two Latino-serving clinics, extending the reach and effectiveness of the clinics’ mental health services. We will compare the impact of three different levels of LHW involvement: a) community outreach/navigation (i.e. screening and referral of community members); b) auxiliary care (i.e. screening, referral, and help overcoming barriers to better mental health); and c) task shifting (i.e. screening, referral, assistance, and supervised delivery of basic mental health treatment). The LHWs will also conduct outreach/education activities in the community (e.g. radio talks, info sessions, tables in community venues) to reduce mental health stigma. Our experienced and largely Latino community-academic research team will also engage in capacity building activities (i.e. monthly town halls, annual retreats, weekly newsletters, provision of trainings and technical support) with the Latino Health Collective, a coalition of Latino-serving organizations. Using mixed-methods and the RE-AIM framework, CRISOL Mente’s impact will be evaluated with clinical data, baseline and 6-month patient survey data (N=200 from each level of LHW involvement), and qualitative interviews with community members (N=30) referred to mental health services by the LHW (Aim 1); pre/post mental health stigma data from two respondent driven sampling (RDS) surveys of Latinos (N=400 each) conducted in 2022 (preliminary study) and in 2027 (Aim 2); community capacity indicators from three surveys of Latino-serving organizations conducted in 2019, 2021 (preliminary studies) and 2027, and key informant interviews (KII) with Latino-serving providers (N=30) in 2019 (preliminary study) and 2027 (Aim 3).