Co-Producing a Trauma and Substance Use Mental Health Literacy Intervention - Black/African American young adults are at elevated risk for trauma and related mental health concerns (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use) yet are less likely to engage in mental health care than other groups, due to substantial and complex barriers to care. These disparities have been exacerbated by, and compounded with, psychological and emotional distress due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Promoting mental health literacy, defined as knowledge and beliefs related to mental health (e.g., recognition, prevention, and management of symptoms) may be an important first step to improving mental health outcomes for Black/African American young adults. This K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will partner with a Community Advisory Board to co-produce a mental health literacy intervention, focused on trauma and substance use, for Black/African American young adults. The culturally tailored intervention will be guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior and social ecological model as guiding frameworks. Intervention components will be designed to promote behavioral, normative, and control beliefs related to mental health care utilization, with resources to target individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community levels of influence. Following development, the intervention will be piloted among Black/African American young adults aged 18-35 years old (N = 80), recruited from community sites (e.g., colleges/universities, barbershops and hair salons, churches, community organizations). Participants will complete a baseline survey assessing primary and secondary outcomes (e.g., current mental health literacy; stigma; beliefs, attitudes, and norms; history of mental health care), with re-assessment mid-intervention and post-intervention. Post-study focus groups with intervention participants (N = 30) will be held to elicit feedback on relevance, feasibility, acceptability, and satisfaction with the intervention, to inform refinement and future dissemination efforts. The proposed study has potential to reduce disparities in mental health treatment engagement and related outcomes.
