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This event took place on April 25, 2023. Click HERE to access the event recording. 

American Indians and Alaska Natives are less likely than any other racial or ethnic group to use alcohol at all. At the same time, alcohol is the most-used substance among Native peoples. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 3 in 10 Native American young adults (age 18-25) report binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in 2 hours); 1 in 11 report heavy alcohol use (binge drinking on 5 or more days in the past month); and 1 in 10 have an alcohol use disorder (2018). Moreover, 1 in 6 Native youth (age 12-17) engage in underage drinking, the highest rate of alcohol use of all racial/ethnic groups (SAMHSA, 2019). The high prevalence of alcohol use among Native Americans is attributed to factors stemming from colonization, including poverty, historical and intergenerational traumas, and health inequities. The era of boarding schools has also contributed to higher and long-term alcohol use disorders with AI/AN populations (2012).

This virtual discussion session will shed light on how to have organic, natural dialogues about culture and identity with Hispanic/Latinx clients, and address the unique challenges they may face inside and outside the therapy room while also pointing to how mental health practitioners can formulate critical therapeutic engagements that acknowledge such experiences. Approaches and principles of Liberation Psychology will be discussed in this webinar to provide deeper understanding of the historical legacies, socio- cultural experiences and structural inequalities that impact the psychological wellbeing of Hispanic and Latinx clients while offering culturally responsive strategies that can help empower clients to navigate the intersections of their history, ethnicity, race, class and socio political worlds. Models based on broaching, cultural humility, and following the client's subjective experience will be compared, contrasted, and integrated to yield a common-sense, transtheoretical model for addressing culture and identity applicable to diverse theoretical orientations.  Our Speaker: Daniel José Gaztambide, PsyD, is the assistant director of clinical training in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the New School for Social Research, where he is also the director of the Frantz Fanon Center for Intersectional Psychology. Originally from Puerto Rico, he is a practitioner in private practice and a psychoanalytic candidate at the NYU-Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He is the author of the book A People’s History of Psychoanalysis: From Freud to Liberation Psychology, and was featured in the documentary Psychoanalysis in el Barrio.  Dr. Gaztambide’s scholarship centers on psychoanalysis and Liberation Psychology, race, class and culture in psychodynamic psychotherapy, Puerto Rican racial identity and colonialism, comparative approaches to psychoanalysis, psychotherapy integration, and the psychology of religion. 

Join us for our event, Stories from the River: Umatilla Tribe. This event took place on March 8. 2023.

Objectives:   Participants will learn about the Autism Spectrum Disorder characteristics and learning styles of students. Participants will identify disparities in the identification and receipt of evidence based services faced by Latino students and their families and the reasons for those disparities. Participants will learn about cultural values to take into account when working with Latino students and their families, including spirituality and personality.  Speaker: Sandy Magaña Ph.D. Sandy Magaña, PhD, MSW, holds the Professorship in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She received a Master of Social Work from California State University, San Bernardino and her Ph.D. from the Heller Graduate School of Social Policy at Brandeis University. Magaña completed post-doctoral training from the NICHD funded Post-Doctoral Program in Developmental Disabilities Research at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a faculty member in the UW-Madison School of Social Work for 12 years and later served as a Professor at the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. At SHSSW, Magaña is the Executive Director of the Texas Center for Disability Studies (TCDS) and Director of the Autism Consortium of Texas Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and other Related Disabilities (ACT LEND). Magaña’s research focus is on the cultural context of families who care for persons with disabilities across the life course. Her current research includes investigating racial and ethnic disparities among children with autism and developmental disabilities and developing culturally relevant interventions to address these disparities. She has received funding for her research from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

Young gang membership is prevalent in the US. Youth gang membership is associated with serious violent offending and victimization. Youth gang membership elevates the risk of various negative, potentially long-term social and health consequences. Law enforcement agencies report a greater percentage of Hispanic/Latino and African-American/black gang members compared with other races/ethnicities. The most recent figures provided by law enforcement are 46 percent Hispanic/Latino gang members, 35 percent African-American/black gang members, more than 11 percent white gang members, and 7 percent other race/ethnicity of gang members. This curriculum aims to help educators and school mental health clinicians working with Latino youth understand the risk factors and intervention strategies specific to Latino youth. Training Objectives Participants will discuss the unique historical context that puts Latino youth at risk for joining and staying in gangs and the social determinants of health associated with gang involvement. Participants will examine evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies as well as best practices in the cultural adaptation of existing protocols will be reviewed. Participants will idenifty cultural considerations for the clinician-youth and educator-youth relationship will be discussed. 

Parental involvement in schools is associated with students’ academic success and positive socioemotional and mental health outcomes. This infographic provides strategies to integrate Latino parents into the school system based on the Parental Involvement Model developed by Joyce Epstein. 

The Latinx LGBTQ+ youth group represents a range of sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions. Their diversity also includes the intersection with other aspects of their identity beyond race and ethnicity, such as religion, ability, and socioeconomic class. This factsheet focuses on group therapy as a culturally appropriate intervention and the role of clinicians in supporting Latinx LGBTQ+ youth dealing with chronic stressors to cultivate self-acceptance and affirm their sexual and gender identity.

Join us for our MHTTC event, Stories from the River. This event took place on February 16, 2023.

Co-occurring disorders are now considered the expectation, not the exception. This webinar will discuss co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in Latino youth.  It will include etiology, prevalence, and treatment options for this population.   Learning objectives: 1. Explain the prevalence of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders among youth. 2. Discuss approaches to working with families with youth who have co-occurring disorders. 3. Examine culturally appropriate treatment options for co-occurring disorders in Latino youth. Speaker: Diane Arms  Diane Arms currently serves as The Center for Co-occurring Disorders Director at The Council on Recovery. She has dedicated her career to serving the Latino population in the Health Field, including Mental Health and Substance Use. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso. Diane has served as Director of Health Integration at Avenue 360 Health and Wellness, Director of Prevention and Counseling at the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, and with the Harris County Health Care Alliance as Program Manager facilitating leadership meetings amongst local FQHCs to identify, address, and resolve systemic issues proactively. Ms. Arms has also served as an Operations Administrator for the children's division unit at Emergence Health Network, El Paso's Local Mental Health Authority. She has successfully implemented programs such as Multisystemic Therapy in a Mental Health Setting and Transition Age Youth, assisting transitioning clients from children's services to adult services in the mental health system.  

Join us for our monthly MHTTC event, Depression: Types, Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment. This even took place on February 8. 2023. Click HERE to access the event recording. 

This toolkit can be used by psychologists, social workers, counselors, clinic staff, interpreters, outreach workers (promotoras), peer navigators, and other advocates in the community. The content of this toolkit will focus on particular considerations for Hispanic/Latinx mental health professionals working in settings that service Hispanic/Latinx populations, as these providers face additional challenges when taking on the role of cultural and linguistic broker. This self-care toolkit will increase your awareness of the negative consequences of mental health work and will help you plan self-care activities that align with your values and lifestyle. The toolkit also contains resources to help you measure your levels of stress, identify your values, and select self-care activities to prevent burnout.

The National American Indian and Alaska Native Childhood Trauma TSA, Cat II, and the National American Indian and Alaska Native MHTTC collaborated on this fact sheet for child abuse prevention.

The National American Indian & Alaska Native Childhood Trauma TSA, Cat II, and the National American Indian and Alaska Native MHTTC collaborated on this sexual assault awareness guide for Indigenous youth, who may not be sure what constitutes consent or sexual assault, or where to turn for help for themselves or others.

The National American Indian & Alaska Native Childhood Trauma TSA, Cat II, collaborated with the National American Indian and Alaska Native MHTTC to create this resource on human trafficking and how it affects Native communities. The document includes Native-specific resources to learn more and get help for human trafficking victims.

The field of mental health is in constant revision and evolution of its understanding of wellbeing and illness. In 2022, the APA released the DSM-5 TR, which included updates to the understanding of some conditions and illnesses, as well as the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), a standardized method for cultural assessment for use in mental health practice.    In this webinar, participants will learn about revisions to the manual as well as uses with Latino populations. Objectives 1. Understand how culture has been defined and conceptualized within the DSM V and DSMV TR 2. Clarify the relationship between cultural concepts of distress and DSM diagnoses 3. Increase confidence in the use of the CFI as a socio-culturally informed and person-centered clinical assessment to work with Latinx individuals and families.   Presenter: Roberto Lewis-Fernández, MD Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernández is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of the New York State (NYS) Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence and the Hispanic Treatment Program, and Co-Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic, at NYS Psychiatric Institute. He is also Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University. He led the development of the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview, a standardized method for cultural assessment for use in mental health practice, and the Principal Investigator of its international field. ​

Join us for our monthly MHTTC event, Flying Starfish, Broken Pots, and Puppies in the River: Culture is Trauma-RESPONSIVE Care. Please click HERE to view the event recording. This event took place on December 14, 2022. 

The current booklet: The Experience of Being a Non-Latinx Mental Health Professional Who Works with Latinx Clients: Providing Appropriate Transcultural Care is designed to provide means to increase health equity among Latinx populations. The main purpose is to: Describe approaches to recruit non-Latinx providers in our efforts to address Latinx health and behavioral health inequities. Provide strategies to increase the competency and proficiency of all providers who work with Latinx communities. Describe cultural themes to consider while providing mental health services for Hispanic and Latinx clients to increase practitioner’s cultural responsiveness. Identify strategies to approach mental health services for non-Latinx mental health providers.

Latinxs living in the US experience disparities in access and quality of mental health services. The social determinants of health, immigration status, immigration-related trauma, and the cumulative experience of inequity, combined with vulnerability during pregnancy and postpartum may result in a higher risk for mental health symptoms. Perinatal Mental Health Disorders (PMHDs) is a term used to include the various disorders that can affect individuals during pregnancy and postpartum. This advanced course provides relevant information on cultural considerations and culturally responsive treatment approaches for mental health providers working with Latinx populations experiencing or at risk for PMHDs. 

Native storytelling is a time-honored way of teaching life lessons and handing down cultural and traditional knowledge, beliefs, ethics, and relationships with nature and other people. Characters in Native stories exemplify both "good" traits like courage and integrity and undesirable traits like duplicity and compulsive or addictive behavior. Winter is traditionally the time to tell stories. Download our Storytelling Resource document here.

It is with great pleasure I share with you the School Mental Health Program Report. The National American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, K – 12 School Mental Health Program, in collaboration with Native Educators and those working with indigenous youth across the country, have been working to help provide culturally informed, knowledge, and evidence-based approaches to improve mental health services in schools serving Native youth.

Latinos experience similar rates of mental health distress as other groups. However, disparities exist in access to mental health services and the provision of culturally responsive mental health services. This desk reference was developed for mental health care professionals interested in learning how to integrate cultural traditions and beliefs to implement culturally centered interventions when working with Hispanic and Latinx populations, thus increasing equity and quality of services. The content derives from Module 4 of the Trainer’s Guide for Clinical Applications of Cultural Elements When Working with Hispanic and Latino Populations.

The following manual provides clinicians from differing backgrounds and disciplines with information on Hispanic and Latinx youth experiencing a first episode of psychosis (FEP). The main objectives include: Providing an overview of the current literature regarding early psychosis specific to Hispanic and Latinx youth and differences with the rest of the United States population. Discussing clinician growth and awareness in their ability to assess and explore cultural/ ethnic identity, engage clients and families, and build rapport. Reviewing current evidence-based psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for FEP and applicability to this unique population.

The goal of this guide is to increase the awareness and abilities of mental health care providers in their use of cultural elements by promoting the use of culturally appropriate formulations when treating Latinos with mental health disorders. Current research findings inform this guide on the impact of cultural factors on the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders and therapeutic relationships.   Download the PowerPoint slide here.