For the last several years, a consortium of Hispanic Mental Health researchers led by the principal investigator has held annual national conferences on Hispanic Mental Health issues and research strategies as a vehicle for mentoring young investigators. These conferences have stimulated new research collaborations and led to numerous scientific publications and grant application submissions that were subsequently funded. The conference has been used as a model for other minority groups underrepresented among NIH researchers in their quest to stimulate needed growth in this area. Despite this significant progress, the task remains far from complete. There remains a serious shortage of Hispanic and other investigators working on Hispanic mental health research at a time of great need due to the massive expansion of the US Hispanic population. This proposal seeks support for a new series of yearly conferences on Mental Health issues relevant to Hispanic populations that will alternate theme and location. The major aim is to bring together promising new investigators with senior investigators in an effort to stimulate the networking and mentoring necessary to promote the entry of new investigators into Hispanic Mental Health research. The program will be guided by an organizing committee composed of Hispanic and non- Hispanic mentors and senior researchers. The American Society of Hispanic Psychiatrists as well as selected """"""""host institutions"""""""" will play a role in co-sponsoring the conferences each year and will contribute to structuring the program and related activities. An average of twenty (18-22) promising new investigators will be competitively selected each year. These new investigators will be paired with outstanding senior investigators with the expectation that papers presented at the meeting will result in peer-reviewed publications. The conferences will also feature a """"""""keynote speaker"""""""" to provide an integrative overview on the theme of the meeting. In addition, we will offer special sessions led by experts on specific research issues (research grant opportunities, grant writing skills, research methodology). Outcomes of the conference will be tracked and these will include number of peer reviewed publications, grants submitted/funded by the new investigators, quality aspects of mentor-mentee pairs and measures of networking and new collaborations. For 2007, the first year of the new award, we propose to hold the conference in November 2007 in South Florida at a location to be decided at a later time. The theme for the 2007 conference will be """"""""Primary Care-Mental Health Partnerships: A Focus on Hispanic Patients"""""""". This proposal seeks support for a new series of yearly conferences on Mental Health issues relevant to Hispanic populations that will alternate theme and location. The major aim is to bring together promising new investigators with senior investigators in an effort to stimulate the networking and mentoring necessary to promote the entry of new investigators into Hispanic Mental Health research. The stimulation of new research careers is intended to improve the mental health disparities that are experienced among Hispanics in the US. The disparities have been partly attributed to the lack of available researchers focusing on mental health among ethnic minorities. ? ? ?
| Martinez, William; Galván, Jorge; Saavedra, Nayelhi et al. (2017) Barriers to Integrating Mental Health Services in Community-Based Primary Care Settings in Mexico City: A Qualitative Analysis. Psychiatr Serv 68:497-502 |
| Interian, Alejandro; Escobar, Javier I (2009) The use of a mentoring-based conference as a research career stimulation strategy. Acad Med 84:1389-94 |
