A Community Based Mental Health Intervention With Latinos – Bass Connections Projects

1) Name
2) Major (and Minor, if applicable) area of study, or graduate/professional program
3) GPA and Major GPA
4) Years of Spanish language training (specify years in high school vs. university and describe whether you have participated in an overseas exchange programs and/or overseas language training) — 250 word maximum
5) Describe any community outreach experience, particularly within the Latino community— 250 word maximum
6) Describe any mental health related training or experience — 250 word maximum
7) Describe any research/program evaluation experience — 250 maximum
8) Discuss how this training program contributes to your long-term academic and/or career goals — 250 word maximum
9) Two references – please include name, phone number and email address

Background 

Through this pilot program, Duke students will have a unique opportunity to work with multidisciplinary teams of undergraduates, graduate and professional students, faculty in medicine, psychology, and public policy, community agencies, and local churches in order to learn about health disparities in Durham, the process of designing and implementing culturally appropriate interventions to improve health and wellbeing, and collaboration across disciplines and institutions, within a community to enact change.

This project is a collaboration between the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research at Duke, El Futuro, a community mental health agency for the Durham and Orange County Latino population, and two Spanish-speaking churches in Durham. We will work with mental health providers, clergy, and community members to develop an interpersonal violence and trauma educational intervention and deliver the intervention to the Latino population in church settings.

News Story: http://globalhealth.duke.edu/news-events/global-health-news-at-duke/newly-launched-bass-connections-initiative-includes-global-health-as-them

Opportunities 

The project team will include six undergraduate students, and three graduate/professional students. All participants will receive a stipend. The program will consist of three phases, with students integrally involved in each phase. In the initial three-month phase, students will engage in a series of workshops with faculty to develop skills necessary for carrying out the community-based educational intervention, including sessions on teaching skills, language and cultural issues, trauma, mental health, and effective collaboration with community and religious organizations. Concurrently, students will work with faculty on a formative evaluation of the existing needs, infrastructure, and goals of the partner community and faith-based organizations that will inform development of the intervention and will be shared with the community.

The fieldwork component will consist of the final development and implementation of an educational intervention for the community about trauma and its impacts on mental health and well-being. While the final design of the intervention will be informed by the formative evaluation, we anticipate that the intervention will be comprised of a series of four 60 to 90 minute weekly sessions to be held at two different churches in the community. Before and between sessions, students will collaborate with staff at El Futuro and the churches to promote community participation and engagement with the intervention.

Post-fieldwork activities will involve development of deliverables that will disseminate information to the broader community. Further, feedback obtained from students, community partners, clergy, and participants will be used to assess acceptability and develop future plans.

Project Dates: March-October
Skills

• Language: Advanced Spanish
• Area of Interest: In order to qualify you must speak high-intermediate to advanced Spanish and be graduating after spring 2013. Undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines will be considered, including those majoring in Spanish, theology, global health, psychology, sociology, and those who are pre-med. Graduate/professional students from all programs will be also be considered, including medicine, psychology, theology, and public policy.
• Graduation Year: 2014, 2015, 2016