Minority mental health patients face many health inequities and inequalities that may stem from implicit bias and a lack of cultural awareness from their healthcare providers. I analyzed the current literature evaluating implicit bias among healthcare providers and culturally specific life traumas that Latinos and African Americans face that can impact their mental health. Additionally, I researched a current mental health assessments tool, the Child and Adolescent Trauma Survey (CATS), and evaluated it for the use on Latino and African American patients. Face-to-face interviews with two healthcare providers were also used to analyze the CATS for its’ applicability to Latino and African American patients. Results showed that these assessments were not sufficient in capturing culturally specific life traumas of minority patients. Based on the literature review and analysis of the interviews with healthcare providers, a novel assessment tool, the Culturally Traumatic Events Questionnaire (CTEQ), was created to address the gaps that currently make up other mental health assessment tools used on minority patients.

“College Students' Perceived Risk of COVID-19 Infection, Protective Behaviors, and Vaccination Intent” is a thesis project based on research conducted from the end of 2020 to the beginning of 2021. This project investigated various protective behavior factors against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) based on gender, race/ethnicity, and financial difficulty of college students in the United States. The plan for this thesis project was to send out two surveys through Amazon Mturk to a group of 500 college students. The first survey further narrowed down the sample size to include only the participants who met the eligibility factors. A second larger survey was sent to this sample which included the data for this research project. This paper will explore the topics of perceived risk of becoming infected with COVID-19, preventive behaviors, vaccination intent based on gender, race/ethnicity, and financial difficulty.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the comprehensive HPV educational video, “What is HPV?” on the vaccination intent of young adults. The study also aimed to collect information regarding knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs that influence vaccination and related health behaviors. The sample included 215 participants between the ages of 18-26 who had not received any HPV vaccine, were able to read and comprehend English, and had consented for participation through Amazon Mechanical Turk. After they completed the baseline survey (T0), participants were randomly assigned to two study conditions. The intervention group (n = 104) watched the “What is HPV?” video, and the control group (n = 111) read the CDC HPV Fact Sheet. Both groups then completed a post-intervention survey (T1). The analysis results show that the vaccination intent among participants in the intervention group significantly increased following the intervention (59.6% to 71.2%), while vaccination intent significantly decreased for the control group (65.8% to 55%) following the intervention. The results also show a significant difference in the changes in vaccination intent for the two intervention groups. The most change in vaccination intent following the intervention came from the group who was undecided in the initial survey. The findings of the study suggested that a brief HPV educational video that provides the most updated evidence while using non-stigmatizing language and tone has the potential to increase young adults’ vaccination intent to prevent HPV-related cancers and diseases. The findings also suggested that effective HPV education is key to combating negative attitudes and misinformation about HPV vaccines.

There is an increase in the prevalence of mental health problems in the United States. Healthy People 2020’s leading mental health indicator is to increase the delivery of care to those with mental health issues and lower the number of youth who experience a major depressive disorder. Teachers and non-teaching staff are well placed in the community to identify youth undergoing emotional distress and facilitate early interventions, yet do not receive adequate training in mental health.

A project was undertaken to determine if a mental health training intervention affected the community youth mentors knowledge, attitude and self-efficacy towards helping youth with mental health issues. Three instruments with good validity and reliability namely Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS), Attitudes to Severe Mental Illness (ASMI) scale, and Gatekeeper Behavior Scale were used in pre intervention, immediately post intervention and two weeks post intervention questionnaires. The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test indicated changes in the pre and post intervention scores as significant in knowledge, and attitude between pre intervention and immediately post intervention time periods. Cohen’s effect size value suggested large, medium, small, and minimum clinical significance in the variables over period of time.

Mental health literacy narrows the gap between symptom onset and intervention. Numerous mental health trainings are currently available worldwide. Schools and after school clubs in collaboration with hospital mental health and other community agencies are better equipped to bridge the gap. School staff report better confidence in addressing mental health and behavioral health issues among youth when equipped with additional resources within the school in the form of psychologists, social workers, and counselors.

This research aimed to examine college students’ perceived racial discrimination, mental health, and differences of these variables by US citizenship to promote healthier mental health practices within Asian college students. Mental disorders are a leading cause of suicidal ideation, which is the fourth leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults, becoming a global phenomenon. The rate of mental health problems, including anxiety and depression, have steadily increased in a decade, with higher rates among racial and ethnic minorities. More than half of adults with serious mental illnesses haven't received treatments, with minorities being more likely to delay or fail seeking mental health treatments due to cultural and structural barriers such as cultural stigma, racial discrimination, acculturation, and language, making it more difficult to address the inaccessibility to high mental health care services, especially for Asians. The findings of this study suggest that, compared to international students, domestic students have greater mental health service seeking intention, received worse racial discrimination (subject to slurs and suspiciousness) and worse mental health since Covid-19, and determined language concordance between patient and healthcare provider is important. International students have more negative beliefs towards the difficulties of treatment and care of mental illnesses and determined ethnicity concordance between patient and healthcare provider is important. The findings provide preliminary insight to acknowledge the differences between domestic and international students in their perceived racial discrimination and mental health. Furthermore, based on findings the issue can be addressed by implementing a mixed-method approach on collecting disaggregated data among this population, removing language and stigmatic barriers to mental health services by education, and promoting cultural competency among mental health workers.