207 Building a community-academic partnership to facilitate translational research and identify and reduce barriers to mental healthcare services and resources in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas

Abstract

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Clinical and epidemiological studies focusing on Hispanics/Latinos are often designed by academic researchers with little input from mental health professionals in underserved communities. Our objective is to establish an academic-community partnership in South Texas to help improve mental health outcomes of Hispanics. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV, South Texas) are burdened with high rates of diabetes and obesity, and interventions have been identified for these conditions, but there is less information about strategies that may help improve their mental health status and address needs. We have explored mental health and psychological factors in Hispanics/Latinos in Latin America (Gil etal., 2021) and consider community participation in the research process to be an understudied topic. Thus, in the present study, we recruited mental health professionals in the RGV to establish an academic-community partnership as a strategy to facilitate translational research that focuses on RGV Hispanics. Partners worked as a team to generate information, identify problems and solutions, and design future projects. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Our academic team (at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) successfully established a partnership with the Cameron County Mental Task Force (CCMHTF), a non-profit organization in South Texas that seeks to “meet the mental and behavioral health needs of the people” in South Texas. The CCMHTF comprises 12 board members that are representative of RGV mental health providers: counselors, social workers, academic clinicians, hospital and county employees, and mental and behavioral health facility providers/clinicians. Our partnership generated qualitative descriptions of the mental health needs of RGV Hispanics/Latinos and barriers to access and utilization of mental health services in South Texas. In the future (phase 2 of the study), we plan to report results of focus groups and mental health assessments. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Hispanics/Latinos are underrepresented in clinical/translational research, and this lack of representation is particularly true for Hispanics/Latinos living along the U.S.-Mexico border of the RGV, South Texas. Our academic-community partnership may serve as a model to facilitate translational research in underserved Hispanic communities.