Train and EMPOWER A Community Health Workforce to Achieve Equity and Reduce Disparities in Mental Health

Overview

The investigators suggest a multi-step approach to improve access to mental health care for minority groups. The plan focuses on three goals: increasing diversity in the mental health workforce, bringing more expertise into the community, and strengthening the community's ability to address the factors that impact mental health. To do this, the TEACH study team will work with students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups at a minority-serving school. Students will be provided the opportunity to obtain their CHW Certification while receiving course credit for their degree. Students will then be eligible to participate in an internship to utilize their skills. The TEACH study team will help these students with their training, supervision, and ongoing support. These students will then be able to work with their communities to tackle common mental health issues and the social factors that contribute to those problems.

Interventions

• Other A semester-long course for training of students as CHWs with additional EMPOWER training for delivering a brief trans-diagnostic psychosocial intervention.
  Students will participate in a special topics course resulting in a CHW certification with the state of Texas. The course will focus on behavioral activation interventions. Undergraduate Bachelor of Social Work (BSWs) students will then be deployed to the health system as certified CHWs with mental health training to provide a sufficient level of care for many, and an entry point to clinical care for those who have needs that are currently unaddressed.

Primary outcome measures

• Job Placement [Time frame: 12 months after the intervention has ended]

Secondary outcome measures (8)

• Depression [Time frame: Baseline, an average of 5 months after the start of the intervention, and immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder [Time frame: Baseline, an average of 5 months after the start of the intervention, and immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Primary Care Visits [Time frame: Immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Anxiety [Time frame: Baseline, an average of 5 months after the start of the intervention, and immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Behavioral Health Visits [Time frame: Immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Quality of Behavioral Health Visits [Time frame: Immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Acute Hospital Stays [Time frame: Immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]
• Emergency Department Stays [Time frame: Immediately after the intervention, an average of 10 months]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Must be enrolled as a UTA undergraduate student with unmet internship hours
• Must be aged 18 and over
• Must be able to provide informed consent.
• Must have successful completion of the UTA CHW/EMPOWER course (Phase 2) and/or State of Texas CHW certification (for non-EMPOWER-trained CHWs) at the start of internship

Exclusion criteria

• Under 18 years
• Not enrolled as an undergraduate student at UTA
• Unable to provide informed consent
• Non-successful completion of EMPOWER course and/or State of Texas CHW certification at the start of internship

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Non-randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Health services research

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• Baylor Scott and White Research Institute — Dallas

Publications

• Miller B, Burgos A. Enhancing the Capacity of the Mental Health and Addiction Workforce: A Framework. 2021. www.scattergoodfoundation.org
• Naslund JA, Tugnawat D, Anand A, Cooper Z, Dimidjian S, Fairburn CG, Hollon SD, Joshi U, Khan A, Lu C, Mitchell LM, Muke S, Nadkarni A, Ramaswamy R, Restivo JL, Shrivastava R, Singh A, Singla DR, Spiegelman D, Bhan A, Patel V. Digital training for non-specialist health workers to deliver a brief psychological treatment for depression in India: Protocol for a three-arm randomized controlled trial. PMID 33421650
• Ma A, Sanchez A, Ma M. The Impact of Patient-Provider Race/Ethnicity Concordance on Provider Visits: Updated Evidence from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2019 Oct;6(5):1011-1020. doi: 10.1007/s40615-019-00602-y. Epub 2019 Jun 24. PMID 31236800
• Chao PJ, Steffen JJ, Heiby EM. The effects of working alliance and client-clinician ethnic match on recovery status. Community Ment Health J. 2012 Feb;48(1):91-7. doi: 10.1007/s10597-011-9423-8. Epub 2011 Jun 17. PMID 21681459
• Hoge MA, Stuart GW, Morris J, Flaherty MT, Paris M Jr, Goplerud E. Mental health and addiction workforce development: federal leadership is needed to address the growing crisis. Health Aff (Millwood). 2013 Nov;32(11):2005-12. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0541. PMID 24191093

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06868498 · 2024-0042.3 · 1U01MD019540-01

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗