Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Awards $2.9 Million to Promote Effective Mental Health Treatment for People of Color

July 6, 2006

AUSTIN-The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health has awarded more than $2.9 million over three years to Texas mental health providers in its three-year initiative, "Cultural Adaptation: Providing Evidence-Based Practices to People of Color."The five organizations funded through the initiative will adapt the delivery of evidence-based practices (EBPs), such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, to be compatible with the culture of the populations of color served.

"Texas is now a majority-minority state, and our diversity continues to grow," said King E. Davis, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. "We know that people of color everywhere are less likely to receive the mental health services they need, and the treatment they do receive is often ineffective. Culturally adapted EBPs hold the potential to improve the delivery of mental health care for Texans of color."

For the Cultural Adaptation initiative, the Foundation selected mental health provider organizations with a demonstrated ability to provide culturally competent care to people of color. Over a three-year period, the grantees will build upon their cultural competence skills by adopting and modifying an EBP to match the cultures of their service populations. EBPs are psychological treatments that have significant research support.

The Cultural Adaptation Initiative grantees will focus in the initiative's first year on developing proficiency in the EBP they selected. Once trained in the treatment through a "train the trainer" model, clinicians will begin providing the EBP to the target populations of color. By the second year of the initiative, grantees will have implemented a cultural adaptation of the EBP. Adaptations will involve modifications in the organization's provision of services, changes in the clinicians' approach to their relationship with clients, or alterations to the EBP itself. An independent evaluator will use program evaluation results throughout the adaptation process to provide feedback to the Foundation and grantees on the impact of their efforts.

"The mental health field has long taken a 'one size fits all' stance, assuming that treatments that work for one ethnic/racial group will benefit all groups," said Davis. "Although we do have evidence that cognitive-behavioral therapy and other EBPs can help people of color, the treatments must be tailored to reflect the unique cultural experiences of diverse groups. This grant program will teach us how to shape evidence-based treatments for diverse cultures."

The Hogg Foundation selected the grantee organizations through a competitive review process in which Foundation staff evaluated applicants' proposals for adapting an EBP for their service populations of color.

Lena Pope Home, Inc., in Forth Worth received a grant of $536,695 over three years to adapt the Defiant Child model for treating children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. The organization will culturally adapt the model for African American children.

Based in Edinburg, Tropical Texas Center for Mental Health and Mental Retardation received a grant of $526,855 over three years to modify the delivery of behavior and exposure therapies for the treatment of anxiety disorders in Latino children and adults.

A grant of $384,441 over three years was awarded to Family Service of El Paso to adapt the provision of cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression in adults to fit the culture of its Latino service population.

DePelchin Children's Center in Houston received a grant of $919,515 over three years to modify their delivery of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy to reflect the culture of Latino children and their parents.

Located in Houston, Community Family Centers (Centros Familiares de la Comunidad) was awarded $607,107 to culturally adapt cognitive-behavioral therapy for Latino adolescents diagnosed with depressive disorders.

"These grantees will provide strong leadership to the Texas mental health community, demonstrating how providers can obtain superior outcomes with their populations of color by culturally adapting EBPs," said Davis.

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health is an administrative unit of The University of Texas at Austin. For over 65 years, the Hogg Foundation has accomplished its mandate through grantmaking to mental health services, research, policy, and public education projects in the state of Texas. The Foundation also fulfills its benefactors' intent by operating its own programs including mental health services research, public policy analysis, public education, conferences on timely issues, and the Regional Foundation Library to the benefit and enrichment of organizations and communities statewide.