2004 Community Partnership Awards

Witness for Wellness

Awardee: Healthy African American Families II
(Witness for Wellness)
Partner: Prof. Kenneth B. Wells, School of Medicine

Abstract:

Depression is one of the leading causes of morbidity and disability worldwide. Despite the existence of effective treatments, only one in four Americans with depression receive appropriate treatment, and the rate is especially low among African Americans. Recent studies show that when African Americans and other minorities participate in quality improvement efforts in a health plan, clinical improvement is even greater than among whites, and both groups benefit in terms of personal economic growth (Wells et al., 2000; Schoenbaum et al., 2001). That means improving depression care may help address both health and economic disparities. This project focuses on developing community-based approaches to improve health outcomes for depression in minority communities.

The specific goals are to:

  1. Develop community dialogues on depression, including issues of awareness, education, recognition, treatment, access to care, and underlying factors.
  2. Develop strategies to address these issues.
  3. Develop a community-led, multi-stakeholder partnership process that can lead an initiative on mental wellness.

We expect to develop a draft community-based toolkit on depression and mental health issues and journal articles about the process, lessons learned, and research results.