The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the development and implementation of the Latina/o Educational Equity Project (LEEP), a pilot program designed to facilitate critical consciousness of race in higher education for Latina/o college students. Consistent with our values in social justice, we developed LEEP with the belief that increased critical consciousness would result in students’ recognition of the power dynamics at work in predominately White universities (PWI), increased strength and resilience in being able to negotiate such a context, and improved ability to make the connection between college completion to the upward mobility of their local communities and communities of origin. Elsewhere we present the specific outcomes of this brief intervention (Cerezo & McWhirter; 2012) our focus here is to describe how we used Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guiding framework to develop various aspects of the program that we implemented in three PWI settings.

Objective The purpose of this pilot study was to examine preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a toolkit (Parent And Caregiver Active Participation Toolkit) to increase parent participation in community-based child mental health services. Method Study participants included 29 therapists (93% female; mean age 34.1 years; 38% Latino) and 20 parent/child dyads (children 80% female with a mean age of 8.6 years; parents 40% Latino) in six diverse community mental health clinics. Therapists were randomly assigned to standard care or the toolkit with standard care. Therapist and parent survey data and observational coding of treatment sessions were utilized. Results Mean comparisons and repeated measures analyses were used to test differences between study conditions over four months. Results supported preliminary feasibility and acceptability of the toolkit, with therapists assigned to the toolkit participating in ongoing training, adhering to toolkit use, and perceiving the toolkit as feasible and acceptable within their setting. Results preliminarily demonstrated improvement in therapists’ job attitudes as well as actual use of parent engagement strategies. Results also preliminarily demonstrated increases in parent participation in child therapy sessions, more regular attendance, as well as some indication of support for perceived treatment effectiveness. Conclusions Overall, results suggest the feasibility, acceptability, and potential effectiveness of the toolkit to enhance therapist job attitudes, practices that support parent engagement, parent engagement, and consumer perspectives on treatment outcomes and the potential promise of future research in the area of parent participation interventions in child mental health services.

Qualitative methods were used to understand community perspectives about ways to deliver cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to rural Latino youth with anxiety. First, four focus groups were conducted with 28 bilingual Latino mental health providers to examine perceptions of CBT using telephone based, therapist supported bibliotherapy, and bibliotherapy without therapist support. Second, qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 Latino parents from a rural community to better understand attitudes toward CBT, and modes of service delivery. Qualitative findings revealed that parents were mostly positive about psychotherapy, and the core elements of CBT for anxiety. However, both parents and providers emphasized the need for adaptations to address practical and perceived barriers to treatment, such as time, convenience, homework, and literacy. Many parents spoke favorably of a telephone-based approach that could address many of their perceived barriers, while providers were expressed more negative views. Such findings are important for data-driven treatment development efforts.

Implications of these feasibility findings and suggestions for future research are discussed. (clinicaltrials.gov unique identifier: NCT01491880). (PsycINFO Database Record

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