Evidence that personalized racial stress procedures elicit a stress response and increases alcohol craving among Black adults with alcohol use disorder: A laboratory pilot study.

Background: The objective of this study was to pilot test newly developed personalized imagery procedures to investigate the impact of racial stress on alcohol craving and emotional and physiological response in Black adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Methods: Twenty Black adults (45% women, mean=37.05, SD=13.

Care integration goes Beyond Co-Location: Creating a Medical Home.

How to successfully integrate mental health and primary care remains a critically important question given the continued morbidity and early mortality of people with serious mental illness. This study investigated integration in a community mental health center (MHC) primarily treating people with SMI in a large, urban northeastern city where an on-site primary care center (PCC) was opened resulting in co-located mental health and primary care services being provided. Using focus groups and online surveys this study asked participants about their thoughts and interactions with the on-site PCC.

Comparisons Between Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Adult Sexual and Gender Minority Male Sexual Assault Survivors.

Objective: This study compared sexual abuse histories and depressive symptoms between younger, middle-aged, and older sexual and gender minority (SGM) male survivors.

Design: Participants completed a brief, online screener as part of a large comparative effectiveness psychotherapy trial.

Setting: SGM males 18 years or older, residing in the U.

Breaking through social determinants of health: Results from a feasibility study of Imani Breakthrough, a community developed substance use intervention for Black and Latinx people.

Racial and ethnic disparities in substance use intervention design, implementation, and dissemination have been recognized for years, yet few intervention programs have been designed and conducted by and for people who use substances. Imani Breakthrough is a two-phase 22-week intervention developed by the community, run by facilitators with lived experience and church members, that is implemented in Black and Latinx church settings. This community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach is a concept developed in response to a call for action from the State of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) with funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to address rising rates of death due to opioid overdose, and other negative consequences of substance misuse.

Strategies for the Management of Voices Shared in a Brazilian Hearing Voices Group.

Hearing Voices peer support groups allow people to construct understandings of their voices. The groups focus on supporting voice hearers in reducing distress associated with voices through an array of strategies. This study sought to describe the voice management strategies shared in a hearing voices peer support group within a Brazilian public mental health service.

The role of substance use treatment in reducing stigma after release from incarceration: A qualitative analysis.

Background: People with substance use disorders (SUD) who have been involved in the legal system often experience stigma upon reentry into the community after incarceration. Although substance use treatment can sometimes be a source of stigma, it may also reduce stigma by facilitating connections with providers, reducing distress, or helping people feel more integrated in their community. However, research has rarely examined the potential for treatment to reduce stigma.

Training Male Sexual Abuse Survivors as Peer Leaders to Deliver Motivational Interviewing and Trauma-Informed Affirmative Care.

This paper provides a description and evaluation of training male sexual abuse survivors to deliver Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Motivational Interviewing with Trauma-Informed Affirmative Care (MI-AC) online to sexual and gender minority (SGM) men with sexual assault histories and depression. After a search and selection process, 26 men with lived experience of sexual abuse received MI training that included the use of role-playing, video demonstrations, and practice followed by weekly supervision while co-leading groups. Peer leaders completed several measures pre and post training, including beliefs about MI and self-reported learning of MI and satisfaction with the training.

"That Was a State of Depression by Itself Dealing with Society": Atmospheric racism, mental health, and the Black and African American faith community.

Despite increased societal focus on structural racism, and its negative impact on health, empirical research within mental health remains limited relative to the magnitude of the problem. The current study-situated within a community-engaged project with members of a predominantly Black and African American church in the northeastern US-collaboratively examined depressive experience, recovery, and the role of racism and racialized structures. This co-designed study featured individual interviews (N = 11), a focus group (N = 14), and stakeholder engagement.

Brazilian immigrants in the United States and mental health: An integrative review.

Background: Brazilian immigrants are becoming a more visible minority and, although different from other Latinos (in a linguistic, cultural, historical, and ethnic sense), are usually either counted as Latinos, not included in the Latino samples or simply overlooked in research studies. It is essential to understand the stress and pressures they undergo and appreciate their singular perspective and culturally-infused experiences to meet their needs and improve their mental healthcare and quality of life in the United States.

Aim: The aim of this review is to understand and describe the experience of Brazilian immigrants in the U.

Racial and ethnic mental health disparities in U.S. Military Veterans: Results from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study.

Despite military veterans having a higher prevalence of several common psychiatric disorders relative to non-veterans, scarce population-based research has examined racial/ethnic differences in these disorders. The aim of this study was to examine racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of psychiatric outcomes in a population-based sample of White, Black, and Hispanic military veterans, and to examine the role of intersectionality between sociodemographic variables and race/ethnicity in predicting these outcomes. Data were analyzed from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS), a contemporary, nationally representative survey of 4069 US veterans conducted in 2019-2020.

A Mixed Methods Study Examining Citizenship Among Youth With Mental Health Challenges.

Introduction: Multiple stakeholders have recently called for greater research on the barriers to citizenship and community belonging faced by people with mental health challenges. Citizenship has been defined as a person's access to the rights, roles, responsibilities, resources and relationships that help people feel a sense of belonging. Factors that may impact citizenship include financial precarity; intersecting forms of marginalization and oppression (e.

Generativity among people with lived experience of mental illness and distress.

Generativity refers to the contributions that people make toward the betterment of others, communities, and future generations. Engaging in generativity may add purpose and meaning to one's life, elements which people with mental illness often feel is relevant for their recovery. Despite its importance, what is known about how people with mental health problems engage in generativity, and the relationship between generativity and recovery is unclear.

Citizenship, Social Justice and Collective Empowerment: Living Outside Mental Illness.

Citizenship is emerging as one of the world's leading models to shift mental health care from artificial psychiatric settings into more natural community settings by incorporating human rights. This paper describes a four-session roundtable series entitled Citizenship, Social Justice, and Collective Empowerment: Living Outside Mental Illness. These roundtables were part of the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC).

Study design and interventions for a peer-delivered motivational interviewing group treatment for sexual and gender minority male sexual trauma survivors.

Sexual abuse of boys and men is a public health problem that has received relatively little attention from clinical scholars and researchers. Given unique pathways for development of and recovery from trauma-related emotional distress, sexual abuse survivors who identify as men may require distinct psychosocial interventions to engage in formal mental health care and assist in symptom reduction. This paper describes the rationale for and methodology of a randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing (MI) versus MI with affirmative care (MI-AC) for sexual and gender minority men who have been sexually traumatized.

Generativity among persons providing or receiving peer or mutual support: A scoping review.

Objective: People with lived experience of mental illness or distress can help others recover through peer or mutual support. One way they may help others recover is by fostering generativity, which refers to one's concern for and contributions toward the betterment of others, including future generations (e.g.

Effective Peer Employment Within Multidisciplinary Organizations: Model for Best Practice.

This study sought a clearer understanding of organizational mechanisms reinforcing effective peer employment and organizational change from the perspectives of peer workers, non-peer staff and management in multidisciplinary mental health and substance use recovery services. Findings were used to develop a model for organizational best practice for peer employment and associated organizational change to promote recovery-oriented and person-directed services. Qualitative research was undertaken, involving 132 people participating in 14 focus groups and eight individual interviews.

Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care: A Perspective on the Past, Present, and Future.

This paper provides a perspective on the recent concept of recovery-oriented systems of care with respect to its origins in the past and its status in the present, prior to considering directions in which such systems might move in the future. Although influential in practice, this concept has yet to be evaluated empirically and has not been the object of a review. Recovery-oriented systems of care emerged from the efforts of persons with mental health and/or substance use disorders who advocated for services to go beyond the reduction of symptoms and substance use to promote a life in the community.

To disclose or not to disclose? Peer workers impact on a culture of safe disclosure for mental health professionals with lived experience.

The presence of peer workers in multi-disciplinary environments has rapidly increased in recent years, yet the impact of peer work on other mental health roles is largely unknown. This article explores the presence of peer workers within multi-disciplinary environments, with a specific focus on the possible impact of this presence on the culture of disclosure for mental health professionals with lived experiences of mental health challenges. Semi-structured focus groups and interviews were conducted with 132 participants at five organizations across the United States.

Implementation of peer support in mental health services: A systematic review of the literature.

Peer support within mental health services has a growing evidence base and aligns with current policies of recovery-oriented care. Despite these advantages, widespread implementation of peer support remains limited, likely due to various methodological and implementation issues. Researchers have noted the importance of utilizing an implementation framework to understand best practices for implementation.

Tele-Mental Health Utilization Among People with Mental Illness to Access Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic arrived at the United States, mental health services moved towards using tele-mental health to provide care. A survey about resilience and tele-mental health was developed and conducted with ForLikeMinds' members and followers. Correlational analysis was used to examine relationships between quantitative variables.

"If You Want to Know About the Book, Ask the Author": Enhancing Community Engagement Through Participatory Research in Clinical Mental Health Settings.

Participatory research, in which people with lived experience of the study phenomenon are involved as collaborators, has been conducted for decades; however, these innovations have struggled to take hold in mental health settings-until recently. The slow uptake of community partnered research in mental health has been unfortunate, especially because this field already suffers from poor community relations, pervasive community mistrust, and racial and ethnic disparities. But now, people with lived experience of severe mental illness-long considered to be "incapable" of functioning as co-researchers-are beginning to be included on research teams.