This application is in response to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) invitation for proposals for Institutional Research Training Programs entitled """"""""Increasing Diversity"""""""". These proposals are expected to enhance the number of minority scientists trained to conduct research in mental health. This application proposes to create an innovative training program that will focus on mental health and aging. It is proposed to create the Institute for Research Minority Trainingin Mental Health and Aging (IRMMA).
The aim of IRMMA is to recruit, train, and retain promising minority individuals from post-doctoral programs into research areas that relate to mental health and aging. We propose to select three applicants per year. The duration of the training program will be three years. A total number of nine awardees are expected to participate in the program at any given time. The cornerstone approach to the training program is """"""""one on one structured mentorship"""""""". Mentors will be leading researchers in the field of mental health and aging. Specifically, IRMMA will develop and maintain a National Network of institutions with the capability to provide prospective minority researchers with """"""""state of the art"""""""" mentorship and training in key scientific areas that relate to mental health and aging.. The structured mentorship will be supported by a number of didactic and scholarly activities designed to provide the trainees with the foundation and the necessary tools for a successful research career in mental health and aging. Two major courses (Intramural Training and Biostatistics and Experimental Design Programs) constitute the foundation of the didactic activities. These main courses will be delivered during four-day long weekends of intensive """"""""in person"""""""" didactics for a total of six long weekends per year during the first two years of training (a total of twelve). These activities will take place and will be centrally coordinated at MUSC by NIH funded, highly experienced researchers and teachers. Additional didactic activities will take place at University of California San Diego (UCSD) (the NTMH funded Summer Research Institute in Geriatric Psychiatry), and during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (which endorsed this proposal). All trainees will participate in didactic and scholarly activities, which will be delivered collectively to all trainees. Finally, some ongoing didactics and scholarly activities will take advantage of innovative web-based and teleconferencing technologies. These include supplementary courses to the Intramural Training and Biostatistics and Experimental Design programs as well as other activities, such as chat rooms, journal clubs, and """"""""meet the expert meetings"""""""". IRMMA will also provide a bi-annual cultural sensitivity training course for faculty mentors delivered at USCD. An administrative structure aimed at conducting the IRMMA program has been created and takes advantage of leading administrators, scientists, and educators in the field of mental health and aging. We expect this effort to be the incubator for a new generation of minority researchers dedicated to the study mental health and aging.
| Flynn Longmire, Crystal V; Knight, Bob G (2010) Confirmatory factor analysis of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale in black and white dementia caregivers. Aging Ment Health 14:962-70 |
