Dr. Brittany Myers is a pediatric psychologist at MetroHealth Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She specializes in working with adolescents to address depression, anxiety, trauma, and suicidal ideation. Dr. Myers is a bilingual clinician who is passionate about serving and supporting Hispanic and Latinx youth and their families. Her research focuses on improving health disparities in the Hispanic/Latinx community, and on suicide prevention and depression treatment for diverse youth in pediatric primary care.
Project Title: Investigating Family-Centered Treatment Approaches to Managing Depression in Hispanic Youth within Integrated Primary Care
Community Partner Organization:
Summary:
Studies have suggested that addressing parental mental health can help to improve symptoms of depression in teens. Rates of depression in teens are increasing and are particularly high for Hispanic teens. Hispanic families are exposed to higher numbers of stressors, placing both kids and parents at higher risk for mental health concerns, but Hispanic patients also have less access to mental health services.
When mental health services are included in pediatric visits, families have an easier time connecting to needed support for kids’ mental health, and this may also be a good place to identify parents who may need mental health support. This study plans to screen kids for depression when they go to the pediatrician within MetroHealth’s Pediatric Hispanic Clinic. Kids who show signs of depression will meet with a psychologist as usual, but in this study, their parents will also answer questions about their own depression, anxiety, symptoms of trauma, and parenting stress. Parents will then either be given a list of referrals to bilingual mental health services or they will be connected directly to a community partner agency who will provide therapy to the parents in either English or Spanish via telehealth. MetroHealth researchers will call families after three months and again after six months to repeat the same questionnaires to measure both parents’ and kids’ mental health symptoms. We believe that when parents receive their own mental health support, both kids’ and parents’ mental health symptoms will improve to a greater degree than when parents are only given a list of referrals.