Train and EMPOWER a Community Health Workforce to Achieve Equity and Reduce Disparities in Mental Health (TEACH)

Baylor Scott and White Health (BSWH)

Status: Invitation-only

Conditions: CHW Certification

Treatments: Other: A semester-long course for training of students as CHWs with additional EMPOWER training for delivering a brief trans-diagnostic psychosocial intervention.

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06868498

2024-0042.3

1U01MD019540-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The investigators suggest a multi-step approach to improve access to mental health care for minority groups. The plan focuses on three goals: increasing diversity in the mental health workforce, bringing more expertise into the community, and strengthening the community's ability to address the factors that impact mental health.

To do this, the TEACH study team will work with students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups at a minority-serving school. Students will be provided the opportunity to obtain their CHW Certification while receiving course credit for their degree. Students will then be eligible to participate in an internship to utilize their skills. The TEACH study team will help these students with their training, supervision, and ongoing support. These students will then be able to work with their communities to tackle common mental health issues and the social factors that contribute to those problems.

Enrollment: 1,500 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must be enrolled as a UTA undergraduate student with unmet internship hours
• Must be aged 18 and over
• Must be able to provide informed consent.
• Must have successful completion of the UTA CHW/EMPOWER course (Phase 2) and/or State of Texas CHW certification (for non-EMPOWER-trained CHWs) at the start of internship

Exclusion criteria

• Under 18 years
• Not enrolled as an undergraduate student at UTA
• Unable to provide informed consent
• Non-successful completion of EMPOWER course and/or State of Texas CHW certification at the start of internship

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,500 participants in 2 patient groups

EMPOWER-trained CHWs

Experimental group

Description:

Undergraduate students at the University of Texas at Arlington will engage in a semester-long course for training of students as CHWs with additional EMPOWER training for delivering a brief trans-diagnostic psychosocial intervention. CHW certified students will then engage in an internship at Baylor Scott and White Health.

Treatment:

Other: A semester-long course for training of students as CHWs with additional EMPOWER training for delivering a brief trans-diagnostic psychosocial intervention.

Non-EMPOWER-trained interns

No Intervention group

Description:

Intern health workers who have not undergone the EMPOWER training curriculum will engage in an internship at Baylor Scott and White Health.