Summary Immigrants living in the U.S. are more vulnerable to mental health problems than the general population, and mental health disorders top the list of the most costly medical conditions. Stress associated with attempts to integrate into a new culture with social isolation and limited communication is linked to mental health outcomes among immigrants. Existing mental health interventions for immigrants are largely based on treatment models to improve the access and quality of care for those with diagnosed mental health problems, however culturally tailored preventative behavioral interventions aimed at reducing stress among immigrants are limited. For prevention, culturally-tailored interventions that address psycho-socio-cultural stressors hold the most promise. Our objectives in this application are: a) to adapt and culturally modify Problem Management Plus (PMP), an evidence-based intervention developed by World Health Organization, to develop Problem Management Plus for Immigrants (PMP-I) as a family-based preventative intervention and b) to test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes (stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms) of PMP-I with trained community facilitators. We plan to adapt PMP to include multi-component, psychoeducation, behavioral activation, and mind-body intervention that are appropriate to reduce chronic stress of immigrants. We will adapt and culturally modify PMP to develop our PMP-I by adding an educational session on stress management and communication skills, behavioral activation on coping mechanisms, provision of social support, and yoga. PMP-I is a peer-led, culturally-tailored psychoeducation, behavioral activation, breathing and yoga intervention delivered in family settings over a 5-week period. This project will take place with a Bhutanese community in Western, MA upon their request and identified need of mental health problem due to their emotional distress and social isolation in our pilot community based participatory research. Our strong community network and interdisciplinary research team is in place to empower community member as interventionists, supervisors, and research assistants through providing extensive training. Trained community interventionists will deliver 5-week PMP-I to interested adults aged 18 and older in 58 families and will distribute support services pamphlets to another 58 families, which will be allocated randomly. Research assistants will collect information on outcomes, and other variables at baseline, post-intervention, and three-month after intervention. We will collect hair samples for cortisol measurement (baseline, 3-mth post intervention) and process it at the UMass Amherst laboratory. The preliminary effect of the intervention on outcomes will be analyzed using multilevel modelling. We will discuss and interview interventionists and participants to measure the feasibility and acceptability of PMP-I. At the completion of this project, we will have developed and pilot tested family-based preventative mental health intervention for immigrants. Achieving this aim will have a significant positive impact on improving the mental health of immigrants and their families and will also empower the community to take a leading role.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter