268039 Feasibility of training community health workers (CHWs)/Promotoras in a Latina mental health depression curriculum

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Araceli López-Arenas, MS , Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Marlynn L. May, PhD , Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health, College Station, TX
Richard Parker, PhD , Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Timothy R. Elliott, PhD, ABPP , Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Olga Cuellar , Executive Director, La FUENTE Learning Center, Austin, TX
Major depression is the leading cause of disability among women (Murray & López, 1996) and mental disorders were associated with a general pattern of being female (Kessler et al., 2005). The prevalence of depression among Latina women is higher than Latino men (Vega & Amaro, 1998). Depression is a particularly sensitive topic and highly stigmatized among Latinas, where Community Health Workers (CHWs)/Promotoras would be most effective to deliver a mental health intervention. CHWs are valuable community members who have the capacity to address mental health concerns such as depression, yet limited studies examine the training of CHWs in mental health topics. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the feasibility of training 4-6 CHWs in a mental health curriculum designed to help Latinas understand and manage their depression. The study also aims to evaluate the CHWs capacities to effectively deliver and facilitate the depression intervention to 24-48 community participants (train-the-trainer). Significant issues related to the development and implementation of evaluation instruments will be discussed. Further, evaluation results to date and major lessons learned will be described.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the feasibility of effectively training Community Health Workers (CHWs)/Promotoras in a mental health curriculum; discuss the evaluation of the CHWs delivery of the mental health intervention; describe evaluation instrument development and measurement sensitivity; identify and evaluate lessons learned.

Keywords: Latino Mental Health, Depression

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Co-Investigator on the project. I have extensive experience working with the mental health curriculum and I have been involved in the program planning, implementation, and evaluation of the project. I am also a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis on Latina/o mental health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4369.0: Mental health interventions: Dissemination, training, engagement and outcomes