Latinos have been consistently found to underutilize formal mental health services and are less likely to receive quality care for mental and behavioral disorders compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Efficacious treatments for mental disorders are available, but dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions for Latinos is limited. An annual LBHI Conference for five years is proposed to improve the exchange of scientific findings and enhance collaboration among 1000 attendees annually representing researchers, mental health care providers, policy makers, advocates, consumers and their families. The conference sessions will provide findings on evidence-based interventions across the life span, and sessions that address the contextual issues (e.g., culturally and linguistically relevant program approaches, community characteristics, system-level barriers and interventions), and process issues (e.g. engagement strategies) that are critical to addressing the disparities in service access and utilization. The Conferences are a collaborative effort between LBHI and national, state, county and community partners to provide a forum for the exchange of information on the distinctive mental and behavioral disorders, recovery, and resilience issues of Latinos. They are also designed to provide a forum for developing strategic partnerships and community participation to support research capacity relevant to Latino mental health. The Conferences support, as attendees, investigators at the pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, and early investigator levels to stimulate their interest in Latino mental and behavioral disorders, recovery, resilience and the Latino organizational and community processes relevant to dissemination and implementation. LBHI will convene a national strategic planning process to identify the: 1) information needs of target attendees regarding evidence-based interventions in Latino service settings and 2) effective dissemination and implementation mechanisms to address conference objectives. Barriers to effective dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions into Latino service settings will be addressed by the Conferences through the following objectives. The annual Conference will: (1) result in enhanced capacity of researchers, mental health care providers, policy makers, advocates, and consumers and their families to collaborate in the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions in service settings for Latinos;(2) increase the capacity to conduct research in Latino mental health service settings through the formation of strategic partnerships, community engagement and the submission of NIH grant applications;and, (3) increase investigator knowledge and interest in addressing Latino mental and behavioral disorders, recovery, resilience and the organizational and community processes relevant to dissemination and implementation. The Latino Behavioral Health Institute (LBHI) proposes a series of five annual conferences designed to enhance behavioral health services to the Latino community, the fastest growing, and yet in terms of mental health services, the most underserved population in the United States. The purpose of the annual conferences is to facilitate the exchange of scientific information and clinical experience among the over 1000 attendees including researchers, clinicians, policy makers, consumers and their families. By improving the link between research and clinical practice, the LBHI conferences aim to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to decrease the disparities in mental health service utilization among Latinos and improve the overall health and mental health of the largest minority group in the United States.
