Victor Luna

Overview

Despite the 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 (Kataoka, Zhang, & Wells, 2002). MH literacy - knowledge and beliefs about the nature of problems and effective treatments - appears to be among the most common perceptual barriers (Jorm, 2000). Psychoeducation, which provides basic information about MH problems and treatment options (Jorm, 2000), has emerged as a promising engagement tool to address perceptual barriers in child MH services (Lindsey et al. 2014, Martinez et al., 2015). Psychoeducational materials help cognitively prepare families for entering MH treatment (Becker et al., 2015). Yet, there is limited mental health awareness content available in brief video format, in both English and Spanish, that is free and easily accessible for English and Spanish-speaking communities. The overall aim of this proposal is to increase MH awareness and reduce stigma in ethnic minority families, in a culturally-responsive manner. To accomplish this, we will develop a series of 3-minute videos to educate families on various MH topics (e.g., what is mental health, understanding signs/symptoms of mental illness, information on navigating therapy process, etc.) Importantly, all content will be developed in English and Spanish to address the needs of monolingual Spanish-speaking families.