What is the ongoing problem?
Racial- and ethnic-minority older adults who live in rural areas are at much higher risk for depression than their White counterparts and they experience multiple barriers to diagnosis and treatment. These inequities are rooted in social and environmental factors associated with place, such as economic insecurity, histories of trauma, chronic gaps in transportation and safety-net services (e.g., food assistance, health care), and disparities in access to policymaking processes rooted in colonialism.
What is this program doing to solve the problem?
This study will use quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, ecological network research, and spatial data analysis to elucidate how place-based vulnerabilities and protective factors shape experiences of depression among rural American Indian and Hispanic/Latino Elders in New Mexico. Guided by Intervention Mapping, a participatory approach for planning health interventions, data will contribute to a community-driven plan for a multisystem intervention targeting the place-based causes of disparities in depression, which will form the basis of a subsequent R01 implementation and evaluation study.
Who is the PI?
Elise T. Jaramillo
Who are the additional team members?
Cathleen Willging (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation), Nina Wallerstein (UNM), Jessica Goodkind (UNM), Steve Verney (UNM), and William Wieczorek (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation) are research mentors.
Who is the grant funded by, for how much, and over what time period?
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities; $207,115; 9/1/21-4/30/2
