interdisciplinary research

Meet the Research Leaders: Anne Rufa, PhD

November 27, 2020 by Haley Cureton

Our team partnered with the I AM ABLE Center for Family Development on the West Side of Chicago. They are a wellness and mental health center. They created a model – TR4IM (Trauma Response and Intervention Movement). We’re working with them to do a program evaluation of that particular model and building capacity so they can do evaluation of the work moving forward. That might help them seek additional funding.

Somewhat separately, we’re doing qualitative work with people who have been part of the program, to get their feedback and see if there are barriers to success or things that people who are engaged in the program think would be a good idea to consider shifting.

Meet the Research Leaders: Whitney Garney, PhD, MPH

November 20, 2020 by Haley Cureton

We are working in Hearne, a small, rural community in east central Texas. We originally planned to address substance use health disparities. Through our first year of research we learned from the community that was a symptom, but one of the underlying reasons was lack of opportunities for youth. We reprogrammed our project to look at increasing opportunities. We’re using a process called “human-centered design” or “design thinking” to engage youth to develop their own program, set of products, or whatever the result is. We don’t have the answer at the beginning of the process. We’ll work with youth over the next year and a half to develop their program and then pilot test it.

Meet the Research Leaders: Kelli Caseman, MA

November 13, 2020 by Haley Cureton

The name of our project is Improving Health Among Youth in Rural Appalachia: Enhancing School-Based Health Centers. I am the community leader. The two researchers, one is at Penn State University, and the other is at Child Trends.

What we’re studying is the school-based health center model. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of school-based health centers before, but they are nation-wide. Here in West Virginia, they started in the mid-90s. Our state has more school-based health centers per capita than any state in the country, and we have some of the oldest in the country. They’re a great health delivery model to ensure kids have access to comprehensive health care.

We’ve never had anyone study the efficacy of them, the challenges they face, and the opportunities to expand the model and address some of the incredible health inequities that our kids face here in West Virginia, whether that be due to poverty, the rural landscape, or to the ongoing drug crisis.

My interest is to try and promote the model to address some of these inequities. For our IRL project, we’ve done a number of interviews with providers around the state who work in these school-based health centers to hear what works, what doesn’t work, opportunities to do better, and the potential policy reform efforts that I could undertake to help them reach out to the kids who are in need of services.

Meet the Research Leaders: Jessica Palardy, MSW

November 3, 2020 by Haley Cureton

I am from Team Philly in Cohort 4. I work with Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH and Melissa Dichter, PhD, MSW who are both researchers. I’m the community partner. We are looking at how we can improve the connection between pediatric medical providers and families who identify as experiencing domestic violence. We’re trying to develop a feedback tool where survivors would be able to have their voices heard in the screening and referral process, where they can say, “I was referred by my doctor, but I didn’t appreciate how they spoke to me about it,” or, “It was very impactful how the nurse spoke to me, and she was so kind, and that worked well.” The provider will be able to take that information. Hopefully it will improve their screening practices.

Resilient and Brilliant, Working Hard to Overcome Family Trauma in the South Texas LGBTQ+ Community

October 20, 2020 by Haley Cureton

In 2017, researchers, advocates, and community members formed the Strengthening Colors of Pride team and set out to understand the lived experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other gender and sexual minority (LGBTQ+) people in the San Antonio Metro Area. Project leaders, with the help of a research team and community advisory board members, developed the largest survey of LGBTQ+ identified individuals ever conducted in South Texas. The survey provides important insight about the demographics of LGBTQ+ people in the area and their experiences with housing and homelessness, healthcare, employment, familial rejection and support, financial stability, resiliency, and much more.

The one thing that was clear is that the LGBTQ+ community is extremely resilient and community members often have strong social networks.

Meet the Research Leaders: Isaias Hernandez & Luisa Blanco, PhD, MBA

October 19, 2020 by Haley Cureton

Isaias: I believe LA County is facing a crisis when it comes to the financial wellbeing of its residents. I would like to present the data to the Board of Supervisors in hopes that it will encourage them to invest in the necessary resources and tools that will help lift many low-income individuals out of poverty and into financial security. Financial health should be seen as a component to public health.

Luisa: I want to do research that has a meaning, that leads to policy change. I want to be part of the LA community. It’s very important, if we want to change things, that we do community-based research.