Newswise — The UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School will welcome Latino mental health experts and budding investigators on June 11-13 at the Hyatt Regency, located at 2 Albany St., for the 7th Annual "Critical Research Issues in Latino Mental Health" conference.
The main goal of this mentoring-oriented event is to foster the careers of new researchers focusing on Latino mental health. "This new cadre of researchers will contribute to better quality mental health and substance abuse care for Latino populations," said Dr. Javier Escobar, conference founder. Escobar is an associate dean for global health and professor of psychiatry and family medicine at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
"There is a shortage of active investigators who conduct research on the issues relevant for the Latino community, so it is critical that we stimulate the pipeline of Latino professionals in mental health," said Alejandro Interian, Ph.D., an organizer of this year's conference and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Among the critical Latino mental health issues are medication adherence and underutilization of mental health services because of language and cultural barriers.
Months before the conference, budding investigators are paired with prominent senior researchers from various mental health professional disciplines. They work closely with their assigned mentor on a presentation. During the conference, the new researchers, who are typically within five years of receiving their doctoral degree, show their work.
The first two days of the conference will feature six oral presentations and 13 poster presentations on a range of mental health issues. This year's conference theme is "Translational Research in Latino Mental Health: Bench to Bedside, Adoption of Best Practices and Integration in Community." Presentations will address topics including medication adherence; acculturation and mental health; treatment outcomes among different Latino groups; and ethnic factors in the risk for psychiatric illness.
Emerging researchers from Rutgers University, Columbia University, New York University, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas, and the University of Puerto Rico are among those scheduled to make presentations. Following their presentations, the new investigators will receive feedback on their work and network with other participants.
The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Maria Oquendo, vice chair for education and director of residency training for the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 11.
The conference wraps up on Saturday, June 13, with presentations from Dr. Michael Escamilla, professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Cellular and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and director of the San Antonio-based South Texas Psychiatric Genetics Research Center, and Dr. Ivan Montoya of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The NIDA is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) , a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
For more information about this conference, please visit: http://www2.umdnj.edu/crlmhweb/.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
RSS