Skip to main content
ABCT 2024 58th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Back
Evaluation ViewAttendees 1

Dissemination & Implementation Science
Symposia

Symposium 108 - Understanding Barriers to Mental Health Care: Uncovering Socio-Cultural Factors Hindering Help-Seeking and Engagement in Mental Health Services Among Underserved and Minoritized Communities

Saturday, November 16, 2024
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST
Location: 305/306, Level 3, Downtown Marriott
CE: 1.5

Keywords: Underserved Populations, Mental Health Disparities, Implementation
Level of Familiarity: All
Recommended Readings: Lipson, S. K., Zhou, S., Abelson, S., Heinze, J., Jirsa, M., Morigney, J., Patterson, A., Singh, M., & Eisenberg, D. (2022). Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 2013–2021. Journal of Affective Disorders, 306, 138–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.038,  

Cabassa, L. J., Zayas, L. H., & Hansen, M. C. (2006). Latino adults' access to mental health care: a review of epidemiological studies. Administration and policy in mental health, 33(3), 316–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-006-0040-8

,  

Anderson, J. K., Howarth, E., Vainre, M., Jones, P. B., & Humphrey, A. (2017). A scoping literature review of service-level barriers for access and engagement with mental health services for children and young people. Children and Youth Services Review, 77, 164-176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.04.017

,   Weaver, R., Brady, A. M., & West Z. (2023). Diminishing New York State's public mental healthcare sector: The impact of austerity and privatization on wages and employment. Cornell University, ILR School, Worker Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/112887,  

Prevalence of mental health concerns has massively increased over the past decade. However, disparities in mental health service use continue to leave significant gaps in accessing quality care for historically underserved and marginalized populations. Understanding the factors contributing to the lack of service initiation and engagement is key to developing strategies to improve equitable access to care. In this symposium, presenters from across different career stages will draw upon their research and clinical expertise to discuss related barriers and facilitators that have impacted service utilization and access to care across different settings and populations. The first two presentations will focus on barriers and facilitators of mental health service utilization among Black and Latinx college students. The third presentation will explore wait times for service users before engaging in care, a common barrier in real-world clinical settings. The final presentation will take a different angle by identifying structural barriers to high quality treatment from the perspective of providers working in the public mental health system. This symposium also offers a diversity of perspectives from various methodological and statistical approaches. The methods used in these studies include quantitative analysis of a large national dataset, qualitative interviews with providers, sequential mixed methods, and retrospective clinical record reviews from a community-engaged clinical project.
Key factors associated with seeking mental health services include current mental health status and perceived need for services, beliefs about treatment, and provision of culturally responsive care. Additional barriers exist along pathways to care, such as long wait times between referral and the first point of entry into the service. At a system level, the public mental health infrastructure fails to meet the complex needs of service users. These findings underscore the necessity of efforts to develop and implement innovative, multifaceted strategies to reduce disparities in mental health service utilization in diverse populations and settings. Following these four talks, the discussant - an expert in mental health care inequities faced by minoritized communities - will offer summarizing comments, and lead an audience-engaged discussion on individual, interpersonal and structural barriers to healthcare access. The symposium will conclude with cutting-edge ideas and best practices for leveraging intervention and implementation science to promote mental health equity.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Elucidate the myriad of socio-cultural factors contributing to disparities in mental health service utilization among underserved populations
  2. Identify barriers to receiving high quality mental health treatment for underserved populations
  3. Characterize the challenges, opportunities, and considerations for the use of mental health services among marginalized communities
  4. Leveraging providers' and service users' perspectives on treatment barriers to improve mental health treatment engagement
  5. Discuss strategies to improve mental health service delivery for underserved and marginalized communities

Presentations:

  • 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST
    (SYM 108) Understanding Wait Times Prior to Engaging in Care for Clinical High Risk for Psychosis in Community Settings: A Retrospective Clinical Record Review and Evaluation of Referral and Assessment Processes

    Speaker: Yen-Ling Chen, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of California Davis

    Co-author: Sabrina Ereshefsky, Ph.D. – University of California, Davis

    Co-author: Shirley Yau, BS/BA (they/them/theirs) – UC Davis Early Psychosis Programs; Dept Of Psychiatry And Behavioral Sciences

    Co-author: Alvaro Gonzalez, AMFT (he/him/his) – UC Davis Early Psychosis Programs; Dept Of Psychiatry And Behavioral Sciences

    Co-author: Tara a. Niendam, Ph.D. – UC Davis Department of Psychiatry

    Co-author: Daniel I. Shapiro, Ph.D. – University of California, Davis

  • 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST
    (SYM 108) Accessing and Utilizing Campus Mental Health Services: A Mixed-method Investigation of Black College Students' Perceptions and Experiences

    Speaker: Ariana Rivens, M.A. (she/her/hers) – University of Virginia

    Co-author: Laura Jamison, MA (she/her/hers) – University of Virginia

    Co-Author: Janelle T. Billingsley, Ph.D. – University of Maryland Baltimore County

    Co-author: Benjamin Johnson, PhD (he/him/his) – Fairleigh Dickinson University

    Co-author: Noelle Hurd, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers) – University of Virginia

  • 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST
    (SYM 108) Rank Ordering Sociocultural Factors to Mental Health Service Use Among Latinx Community College Students: A Dominance Analysis

    Speaker: Daniel H. Saravia, M.A. (he/him/his) – University of California Los Angeles

  • 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM EST
    (SYM 108) Gaps in the Public Mental Healthcare Service Landscape: A Qualitative Examination of New York Public Mental Health Therapists

    Speaker: Madeline Kiefer, B.A., M.A. (she/her/hers) – Stony Brook University

    Co-author: Rebecca Mirhashem, M.A. (she/her/hers) – Stony Brook University

    Co-author: Danielle R. Adams, PhD – University of Washington, St. Louis

    Co-author: Briana S. Last, Ph.D. (they/them/theirs) – Stony Brook University