Project IMPACT: Integrating Mobile Phone Applications in Community Treatment: An Academic and Community Partnership to Improve Access and Enhance Behavioral Healthcare.

Project aims to build capacity by increasing the training workforce to be competent users of comprehensive mobile application called myStrength, thereby expanding behavioral health services and overall community wellness. The goals of myStrength are within 12 months to: train 12 Counseling and Social Work interns and 65 clinicians to effectively use myStrength to augment care for clients with behavioral health disorders including PTSD; introduce myStrength to 800 adolescents and transitional-aged youth (13-24 years old) and 2200 adults (25-79 years old) in the Child and Family Services Division of GCBHS; Encourage client usage of the application, attaining a 25% usage rate; and determine the barriers and facilitators to implementing this app in a community behavioral health agency.

The University of Cincinnati has a high need for mental health support for faculty, staff, and students. Our large university has a wealth of resources but there is frequently a systemic disconnect between those in need of support and the resources available to provide help. The aim of this study is to create a collective, proactive, and upstream approach to mental health by creating a culture of well-being.

Leveraging the Social Determinants of Health to Enhance Nursing Workforce Diversity

It has been reported that patients prefer provider similarity with regards to race, ethnicity and gender, and greater patient satisfaction is reported with patient-provider concordance.  However, minorities make up only 7% (4% Black, 3% all other minorities) of the nurse workforce in Greater Cincinnati. In the state of Ohio only 10.8% of nurses are non-white minorities. The aims and goals of this proposal are twofold: to increase the ethnic/racial diversity of the nursing workforce at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center by creating an employment pipeline from UC Blue Ash and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College ADN programs, which have greater ethnic/racially diverse student populations; and to ensure progressive continued education of the under-represented ethnic/racially diverse graduates from the ADN programs who are employed as a result of this employment pipeline to complete their BSN degree at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing.

Urban Health Pathway Pipeline Program (UHPPP) in Allied Health Sciences

There is an overwhelming lack of diversity in healthcare. Data shows minority populations are underrepresented (URM) in all areas of direct patient care and this disproportionate number of racial/ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans and Latinos will only increase in the subsequent years. The key to addressing the issue of underrepresentation of URM students in health professions educational programs and in the workforce is the development of practices and programming to increase URM students’ sense of belonging and agency. This study aims to show that increasing faculty/staff and student intercultural competence through a series of tailored training based on Intercultural competence development inventory (IDI) and intercultural conflict style inventory (ICS) will lead to a greater perception of a positive campus climate by prospective URM students; that there is a positive relationship between the faculty mentor relationships and increased sense of belonging and self-efficacy of URM students; and that the development and implementation of a health professions pipeline program focused on belonging, agency, and mentoring relationships will increase URM applications and enrollment in graduate programs within the College of Allied Health Science.

The Stress in Urban Environments: Managing Stress to Achieve Academic Success

African American children are less likely to receive a high school diploma compared to whites and more whites than Blacks earn a bachelor’s degree, a statistic that is associated with lack of employment and economic instability. An even more serious problem is that children who are living in urban environments with stress related trauma, such as COVID-19, violence, PTSD, are at greater risk of low-educational achievement. This pilot intervention addresses two research questions:

1. Are African-American youth who received culturally stress related techniques more likely to reduce their anxiety and achieve academic success within 12 months than those who do not receive stress related techniques;

2. Can an intervention targeting anxiety and barriers to academic success among African American youth effectively decrease anxiety and promote academic success among African American youth.