NCT06139159

CRISOL Mente: A Multilevel Community Intervention to Reduce Mental Health Disparities Among Latinos

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 603 (actual)
• Sponsor: Drexel University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Latinos in the U.S. experience significant disparities in access to mental health services due to lack of health insurance, language barriers, low availability of bilingual providers, mental health stigma, and fear of deportation. There is an urgent need to identify low-cost, culturally appropriate interventions to reduce mental health disparities among this population. This project will address that need by implementing and testing CRISOL Mente, a multi-level, culturally-congruent community intervention to improve the mental health of the Latino population in Philadelphia.

Detailed description

Latinos in the U.S. experience significant disparities in access to mental health services due to lack of health insurance, cost of services, limited awareness of mental health resources, mental health stigma, and fear of deportation. Limited English proficiency coupled with an acute lack of bilingual and culturally competent providers further impede Latinos' adequate access to quality mental health services. The COVID-19 pandemic has only amplified the need for mental health care and exacerbated mental health disparities for Latino communities, making it urgent to identify low-cost, effective strategies to reduce these gaps. This 5-year project seeks to develop and test a multi-level, community intervention to improve mental health outcomes and promote access to culturally appropriate mental health treatment for Latino communities in Philadelphia. CRISOL Mente will include components at various levels of the socio-ecological model: a clinic-based, stepped-care program relying on Latino lay health workers (LHW) for the delivery of mental health services. To improve mental health symptoms and engagement in care, the investigators will recruit, train and supervise a cohort of Latino LHW who will be embedded into two Latino-serving clinics, extending the reach and effectiveness of the clinics' mental health services. The investigators will compare the impact of three different levels of LHW involvement: a) community outreach/navigation (i.e. screening and referral of community members); b) auxiliary care (i.e. screening, referral, and help overcoming barriers to better mental health); and c) task shifting (i.e. screening, referral, assistance, and supervised delivery of basic mental health treatment). The LHWs will also conduct outreach/education activities in the community (e.g. radio talks, info sessions, tables in community venues) to reduce mental health stigma. Our experienced and largely Latino community-academic research team will also engage in capacity building activities (i.e. monthly town halls, annual retreats, weekly newsletters, provision of trainings and technical support) with the Latino Health Collective, a coalition of Latino-serving organizations. Using mixed-methods and the RE-AIM framework, CRISOL Mente's impact will be evaluated with clinical data, baseline and 6-month patient survey data (N=200 from each level of LHW involvement, total n=600).

Conditions

• Depression, Unipolar
• Anxiety Disorders
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Outreach/navigator	* Conduct outreach activities with people in the community who are hard to reach and with limited access to health care, conduct informal screening for symptoms of mental illnesses, encourage and refer individuals at-risk, suspected of having, or affected by mental health issues to clinics for triage. * Document outreach, screening, and referral activities in LHW database
OTHER	Auxiliary to care	* Arrange consultation for those at-risk, suspected, or affected individuals at clinics for triage. * Introduce the patient to the clinical team via a "warm hand-off" and assist in scheduling a follow -up visit. * Support patients in attending their clinic visits; help patients address barriers through education, referral, and navigation to ancillary community services (SAVAME, legal, housing, economic, etc); * Engage, activate, and empower patients to participate in the care process * Frequent contact with patients: +1 every two weeks during the first 3 months, +1 every month for months 4-6. * Assist with group sessions: affinity groups * Identify community-based resources. * Document outreach, screening, referral, and auxiliary care activities in LHW database
OTHER	Stepped care and task shifting	* Support counselling initiated by the psychologist * Reinforce patient education about depression, anxiety, trauma, and other syndemic conditions. * Work with patients' families and peers to reduce stigma, address syndemic factors and social conditions. * Contact frequency with patients: +1 every two weeks during the first 3 months, +1 every month for months 4-6. * Co-lead group sessions: affinity groups * Provide Mental Health First Aid to members of the community. * Document outreach, screening, referral, auxiliary and stepped care activities in LHW database

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-11-10
• Primary completion: 2027-08-31
• Completion: 2027-08-31
• First posted: 2023-11-18
• Last updated: 2026-04-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States