Media Contact : Laurie Mellas, 277-5915, lmellas@unm.edu

Oct. 14, 2005

UNM RECEIVES $1.25 MILLION TO SUPPORT MINORITY MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH

Howard Waitzkin, University of New Mexico professor of sociology and member of the UNM Institute for Social Research, has received a $1.25 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The five-year grant will support the UNM-based New Mexico Mentorship and Education Program, focused on minority mental health issues in primary care settings.

First Choice Community Healthcare, which is a local network of community health centers, and the UNM departments of psychiatry and family and community medicine are collaborators.

The NIMH funded the program, unique to the Southwest, as a pilot project in 1999. It includes an intensive, one-week annual training institute to introduce mental health services research to minority junior faculty and graduate students from Southwest institutions.

The program is also designed to build ongoing mentorship relationships between faculty and graduate student participants and nationally recognized mental health services researchers.

“Minority junior faculty requested we create the mentorship program. They will eventually take it over, meanwhile; we have mentors from around the nation,” Waitzkin said.

In addition, primary care practitioners from local community health centers will be paired with researchers and mentors focused on mental health services in minority populations.

Mentored participants will obtain training to help compete for research support and manage funded proposals; acquire skills in research methods; learn about recent research on mental health services with a special emphasis on disparities in mental health outcomes for minority populations; establish networks with outstanding research mentors; and receive guidance in undertaking research with Southwest populations.

The university received nearly 72.6 million in NIH funding for the 2005 fiscal year.

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