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Prevention Research Center Celebrates Second Anniversary on Coming Out Day

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Illustration of LGBTQ people with pride flags

Two years ago on National Coming Out Day, the UMD School of Public Health celebrated the launch of our Prevention Research Center’s new focus on supporting LGBTQ+ mental health, made possible with new support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Training Mental Health Providers

Over the past two years, during which everyone was impacted by the global pandemic, the PRC team developed and launched the Sexual and Gender Diversity Learning Community Implementation Project, led by Dr. Jessica Fish and Dr. Brad Boekeloo, which aims to improve the cultural competency of mental health care providers in working with clients from the LGBTQ+ community. The Virtual Simulated Client (VSC) research project, led by Dr. Richard Shin, in conjunction with Drs. Elizabeth Aparicio and Mia Smith-Bynum, assesses how effectiveness of the LGBTQ+ cultural competency training with a simulated, virtual initial mental health assessment. These are an opportunity for therapists to demonstrate the skills they have learned in training with a simulated LGBTQ+ client. They receive a personalized feedback letter at the end of this experience from the PRC expert team. So far, they have recruited 24 therapists from 12 mental health provider organizations to participate and they have completed the intervention with the first of three cohorts. Read more about the VSC project. 

Promoting LGBTQ+ Health Equity and Social Justice at UMD and Beyond

In addition to these and other research projects, the PRC has launched a new UMD organization LGBTQ+ Students and Allies in Public Health (SAPH), led by doctoral student John Salerno. The group, which now boasts 300 members, brings together those passionate about promoting LGBTQ+ health equity and social justice by engaging in research, advocacy, education and leadership projects and initiatives at UMD and beyond. Among their contributions, they have published three reports that provided recommendations related to supporting LGBTQ+ youth and young adults throughout the COVID-19 pandemic:

Many other activities have been strategic and timely, addressing immediate needs such as those related to COVID-19, religious exemption laws and the foster care and healthcare system, which all impact LGBTQ+ people’s mental health and wellbeing. With a supplement from the CDC to support COVID vaccine access and confidence among LGBTQ+ populations, Dr. Jessica Fish and Dr. Cynthia Baur (from the Horowitz Center for Health Literacy) are partnering with local health improvement coalitions (LHICs) and CenterLink, a national member-based coalition that provides training and technical assistance to over 270 LGBTQ community centers in 48 states, to develop communications tailored for the community. 

Learn more and follow updates from the Prevention Research Center

  1. Sign up for their COVID- 19 hot topics newsletter
  2. Sign up for news and alerts from the Prevention Research Center
  3. Get involved with LGBTQ+ SAPH: Email: LGBTQ-SAPH@umd.edu
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