Community Tailored Responses to Depression Care

Abstract

University of California—Los Angeles, School of Nursing, LosAngeles, California, USALast month this column addressed general guidelines forproviding culturally and linguistically competent mental healthcare to the diverse ethnic and racial groups living in UScommunities. We discussed guidelines for providing culturallycompetent mental health care at individual, organizational,and societal levels. The column ended by noting a promisingavenue for providing culturally competent care that makes useof a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach(Stacciarini, 2009). In a review of CBPR publications involvingLatinos and depression, Stacciarini (2009) observed that fewresearchers have used a CBPR approach when intervening withdepressionamongLatinos.Sheconcludedthatthereisasubstan-tial need to move toward community-academic collaborationsto address depression in underserved minority populations.Using the CBPR approach, health and social service organiza-tions partner with academic institutions to involve communitymembers in tailoring their own mental health care that will bestmeet their needs and conform to their own explanatory models.Community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) is avariant of CBPR thatemphasizes equal participation and power-sharingbycommunityandacademicpartnersinallphasesoftheresearch process (Jones, 2009; Jones & Wells, 2007). CPPR iscurrently under study in two large areas of Los Angeles County(South Los Angeles and Central Los Angeles) with vulnera-ble populations and communities of color (Community Partnersin Care [CPIC], 2009). The study, known as Community Part-ners in Care, asks whether agencies and communities workingtogether through a community engagement process is a betterway of improving access to quality depression care services and