Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Cultural Adaptation Grantees Share Successes, Challenges

Foundation Marks Cultural Adaptation Initiatives First Year with Austin Meeting

December 1, 2007

On November 13, Hogg Foundation grantees, consultants, and staff participated in a one-day meeting to exchange information from the first year of the grant program, Cultural Adaptation: Providing Evidence-Based Practices to Populations of Color.

Held at the Foundation's office in Austin, the meeting included presentations on key topics, grantee panels, and discussions led by the grant program's trainers and evaluator.

Hogg Foundation Executive Director King Davis kicked the meeting off with an overview of efforts around the country to develop and test cultural adaptations of evidence-based practices.

"The Cultural Adaptation grantees are on the cutting edge of vitally important work," Davis said. "I want to recognize the fine work accomplished during the grant program's first year. Many groups around the U.S. are interested in learning from these efforts."

Grantees discussed their Year 1 lessons learned in panels led by Hogg Foundation Program Officer Rick Ybarra and Associate Director Lynda Frost. Ybarra is the Cultural Adaptation Initiative's new project leader. The panels shared a range of successes and challenges experienced to date in implementing their chosen evidence-based practices (EBPs) and culturally adapting them for populations of color.

"In just the first year, we have already learned so much about what it takes to adapt EBPs for populations of color," said Ybarra. "It is exciting to anticipate what more we will learn in the grant program's second and third years."

Charles R. Ridley, professor of educational psychology in Texas A&M's College of Education and Human Development, served as guest speaker for the annual meeting. A renowned cultural competence expert, Ridley examined multicultural competence as the overarching principle in evidence-based, culturally relevant EBPs.

The challenging process of adopting new clinical practices during implementation was explored in a panel discussion led by Frost and Kevin Stark, professor of educational psychology at The University of Texas at Austin.

Stark has provided training to several of the Cultural Adaptation grantee teams in cognitive-behavioral therapy for children and adolescents.

Holly VanScoy of Academic Research Associates provided an update on the grant program's evaluation which is getting underway. VanScoy talked with grantees about the site visits she will be conducting in the coming months to gather qualitative data about the grantees' work.

A team of cultural competence experts from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio sought input from the grantees on their cultural competence training needs. Delia Saldaña, Larry Morningstar, Brigitte Bailey, and Martha Medrano will use the feedback to shape individualized training for the sites.

The annual meeting was followed by a one-day, intensive training on cognitive-behavioral therapy with children and adolescents conducted by Stark. The training was offered to the grantees' new therapists and those wanting to deepen their skills.