Expanding Reach of the Strong Minds Intervention in Underserved Communities of Color and Expanding Reach of the Strong Minds Intervention with Arab Americans

With support from the Bank of America Foundation, the Disparities Research Unit has engaged in programming to expand the reach of our Strong Minds mental health intervention, developed with NIH funding. The Strong Minds program is a linguistically- and culturally-tailored psychosocial intervention offered over six months to adults aged 18+ with moderate to severe depression or anxiety symptoms. BOA support helped expand the capacity for trained Community Health Workers to deliver mental health sessions to 75 participants in English, Spanish, and Chinese – both new participants and those in the control group of the study clinical trial. The team additionally offered training to community-based organizations to equip their staff to continue the program. 

With a new round of support, the Disparities Research Unit is refining an Arabic language adaption of the program to be offered virtually in a group format. The activities include an initial focus group to collect input on cultural and linguistic tailoring of the program and providing the intervention in a group format to Arab American participants. We plan to evaluate the program's feasibility and satisfaction and explore the outcomes' efficacy. We aim to provide a resource to meet the Arabic-speaking population's needs, including for Massachusetts refugees.

The Bank of America Foundation supported this work through its Charitable Gift Fund.