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).
