Co-Developing a Psychoeducational Mental Health Toolkit for Underserved Families to Navigate the Mental Health System - Project Summary/Abstract Despite high prevalence rates of mental illness in youth, up to 80% of U.S. youth with mental health (MH) need do not receive MH services, with the disparity in need and service use highest among racial/ethnic minority and socially disadvantaged families. MH literacy - knowledge and beliefs about the nature of problems and effective treatments – is among the most common perceptual barrier limiting the use of effective treatments. Psychoeducation, which provides basic information about MH problems and treatment options, has emerged as a promising tool for engaging families in MH care. Yet, there is limited psychoeducational content designed for underserved families that is co-developed, free, easily accessible, and available in English and Spanish. To address this gap, we propose to develop, with our community partners in Santa Barbara County, a Psychoeducation Toolkit designed to engage underserved families in community-based mental health settings (CMHS). The long-term goal of the proposal is to achieve health equity for underserved families by co- developing a Psychoeducation Toolkit with community stakeholders and assessing implementation outcomes. Using a collaborative, iterative approach with community stakeholders in Santa Barbara County, the toolkit will ultimately be designed to increase mental health literacy, reduce stigma, and enhance help-seeking behaviors. The following aims will allow us to produce the toolkit to examine implementation outcomes using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research as a theoretical framework to guide implementation efforts of the evidence-based, culturally responsive toolkit created for the context of CMHS. Aim 1: Co-Develop the Psychoeducation Toolkit with Providers and Families in CMHS. It is expected that this aim will increase the feasibility, acceptability, utility, and adaptability of the toolkit for providers to implement in the CMHS context. Aim 2: Examine the feasibility, acceptability, utility, and adaptability of Psychoed Toolkit in a pilot. It is expected that this aim will address potential implementation barriers and increase the external validity of the toolkit for use in the CMHS context. We will employ a mixed methods, Delphi approach in the development and implementation of the toolkit, which allows the examination of quantitative data on implementation outcomes and an assessment of qualitative consumer perspectives impacting the delivery of the toolkit. Importantly, this proposal will achieve the goal of this funding mechanism by engaging students from underrepresented groups in research. As CSUN is a Hispanic Serving Institution with a high proportion of first-generation college students from disadvantaged backgrounds, this project will enable the PI to mentor underrepresented students in hands-on psychological research. The PI has a strong track record of mentoring underrepresented students that have successfully entered into Ph.D. programs. It is expected that accomplishing this project will address community stakeholder needs to achieve health equity. As the current proposal is focused on implementation outcomes, future studies will examine the intended effects of the toolkit in a randomized control trial (R34).
