Yale University Awarded $140,000 Grant to Improve Mental Health Care 

NEW BRITAIN, April 6, 2010 – The Connecticut Health Foundation awarded a two-year grant to the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health to implement a new training model designed to improve the effectiveness of care in meeting the mental health needs of people from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural groups. The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) Office of Multicultural Affairs and Connecticut Mental Health Center will partner with Yale on this project.

This project, will examine:

• The impact of cultural competence training and technical assistance on mental health providers
• Organizational effectiveness in working with these diverse groups

The program aims to enhance provider skills in working cross culturally in an effort to improve treatment experiences and outcomes, and reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.

“Inequities in access, service quality and outcomes are pervasive and long-standing among individuals of diverse racial, ethnic and cultural communities,” says Miriam E. Delphin, Ph.D., project director and assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine.

One documented inequity is in quality of care studies that show African-Americans are over-diagnosed with schizophrenia relative to other groups, yet are less likely to receive newer antipsychotic medications and complete treatment.

Evidence, although limited, suggests that bias and a lack of cultural sensitivity may account in part for these inequities. Says Delphin, “Most studies have not linked cultural competence interventions to actual client outcomes. This is one of our main goals – we want to know whether our intervention makes a difference at the client level. Are disparities reduced? Do people feel better?”

Yale’s program seeks to improve outcomes and reduce health disparities within the mental health system by addressing workforce development needs and the organization’s cultural competence.
A long-term goal will be to create a statewide cultural competence system change initiative by implementing this program in all DMHAS state and contracted agencies. These include the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC), which will serve as the test site for this pilot project.

“We are also grateful to the foundation for encouraging us to define cultural competence system change. This contributed significantly the development and evolution of our project,” says Delphin.
 
About the Connecticut Health Foundation
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems. Since it was established in July 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grant-making, public health policy research, technical assistance and convening to achieve its mission – to improve the health of the people of Connecticut.  

Over the past 10 years, CT Health has awarded 510 grants totaling over $40.5 million in 44 cities and towns throughout the state in three priority areas:

• Improving access to children’s mental health services
• Reducing racial and ethnic health disparities
• Expanding access to and use of children’s oral health services
  

For more information about the foundation, please visit www.cthealth.org or contact Communications Officer Maryland Grier at Maryland@cthealth.org or 860.224.2200, ext. 32.