Bridging the Divide: Improving Mental Health Care, Access, and Delivery in our Communities

According to a recent report by SAMHSA, it’s estimated that about 20% of US adults had any mental illness in 2020. Previous national surveys demonstrate that the lifetime prevalence of mental illness in adolescents nears 50%. However, among adults with any mental illness and adolescents with major depression, less than 50% receive mental health services. The widespread inaccessibility of these services is made even more clear among communities experiencing systemic health disparities, such as rural and racial/ethnic minority communities. 

In this webinar, three psychiatrists will provide an overview of mental health disparities and the social determinants which affect access to mental health services. They will highlight two strategies to advance mental health care and access among particularly underserved populations: improving the cultural responsiveness of mental health care and increasing the delivery of mental health services in rural communities.

Spotlight Speakers:

Nicole Del Castillo, MD, MPH is at the University of Iowa, where she is the Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Carver College of Medicine and Clinical Assistant Professor in the  Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Del Castillo has been involved in various leadership positions locally in Illinois and Iowa as well as nationally through the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists.  Her research and health policy efforts have helped to reduce disparities that prevent underserved populations from receiving needed health services by eliminating the barriers of stigma, enhancing education and improving access. 

Shea Jorgensen, MD is the medical director at Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Health, a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic in northern Iowa. Dr. Jorgensen is the psychiatrist on the Assertive Community Treat team, the First Episode Psychosis team, and treats outpatients. She is also Director of Rural Outreach and Training for the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, primarily directing the rural psychiatry residency track. 

Kevo Rivera, MD is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, who identifies as a queer, agender, Filipinx-American child of once-undocumented immigrants. Dr. Rivera serves through various organizational leadership positions at the local, state, and national levels as co-chair of the Department of Psychiatry Diversity Committee, as councilor of the Iowa Psychiatric Physicians Society, and as a Diversity Leadership Fellow and member of the Council on International Psychiatry and Global Health with the American Psychiatric Association. Their clinical interests include LGBTQIA2S+ mental health, cultural psychiatry, and public psychiatry. As an appointed member of the Iowa City Ad-hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission, they are also deeply invested in community-level efforts to bring restorative justice to local marginalized and minoritized populations.

NNLM Region 6 Speaker Spotlight Series is an irregular webinar series from the NNLM Region 6, featuring expert guest speakers presenting on topics of interest to all our users, from librarians to public health practitioners, educators, clinicians, and others who work with health information. Topics will be scheduled according to audience interest, seasonal applicability, and speaker availability. For more information, contact Region6-RML@uiowa.edu.

Objectives:

Topics provide information to help attendees do one or more of the following:

• Know their communities
• Better understand health consumers
• Evaluate health information
• Increase knowledge of resources and subjects
• Improve health-related communication, reference, instruction, and programming
• Increase health literacy
• Understand and explore the relationship between technology and health
• Explore ethical and legal issues
• Assess needs for health information
• Obtain and disseminate health-related information
• Identify sources of secondary data related to health

Accessibility This webinar includes live closed captioning.

Code of Conduct NNLM is dedicated to providing a welcoming and supportive environment for all people, regardless of background or identity. As such, we expect respectful interactions with instructors and learners. Read the full Code of Conduct here.

Recording The recording of this webinar will be posted to our YouTube channel 1-2 weeks following the live event.