Improving Mental Health Guardianship: From Prevention to Treatment.

Objective: The authors sought to identify the most promising strategies for improving the mental health guardianship process in Los Angeles County for adults with mental illness who are gravely disabled.

Methods: In May and June 2019, 56 experts, working in hospitals or outpatient facilities or representing legal, advocacy, policy, or forensic organizations, participated in an online modified-Delphi panel, rating the ethical appropriateness, impact on care quality, efficiency, and feasibility of nine strategies for improvement of mental health guardianship. Agreement was determined with the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method, and comments were thematically analyzed.

Engaging LGBTQ Communities in Community-Partnered Participatory Research: Lessons from the Resilience Against Depression Disparities Study.

Background: The Resilience Against Depression Disparities (RADD), a community partnered, randomized comparative effectiveness study, aimed to address mental health in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) racial/ethnic populations in New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Objectives: To describe engagement methods, lessons learned, and recommendations in engaging LGBTQ individuals and agencies throughout the RADD study.

Methods: RADD used a community partnered participatory research framework to engage LGBTQ community members and agencies.

Mental Health Community and Health System Issues in COVID-19: Lessons from Academic, Community, Provider and Policy Stakeholders.

The coronavirus pandemic of 2019 (COVID-19) has created unprecedented changes to everyday life for millions of Americans due to job loss, school closures, stay-at-home orders and health and mortality consequences. In turn, physicians, academics, and policymakers have turned their attention to the public mental health toll of COVID-19. This commentary reporting from the field integrates perceptions of academic, community, health system, and policy leaders from state, county, and local levels in commenting on community mental health needs in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community Engagement and Planning versus Resources for Services for Implementing Depression Quality Improvement: Exploratory Analysis for Black and Latino Adults.

Objective: Racial/ethnic minorities experience disparities in depression1 and there is a paucity of evidence-based interventions to improve depression care access and outcomes. Community Partners in Care (CPIC) is a community-partnered study of depression care quality improvement (QI) in under-resourced, urban communities: Community Engagement and Planning (CEP) for multi-sector coalitions, and Resources for Services (RS) for program technical assistance.2 CEP demonstrated benefits for the overall CPIC study population; effects for Black and Latino sub-populations are unknown.

Effect of pharmacological treatment of depression on A1C and quality of life in low-income Hispanics and African Americans with diabetes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether pharmacological treatment of depression in low-income minorities with diabetes improves A1C and quality of life (QOL).

Research Design And Methods: This was a 6-month, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Patients were screened for depression using Whooley's two-question tool at a county diabetes clinic.