Concepcion Barrio, PhD, LCSW, associate professor at the USC School of Social Work, has focused her research on the study of ethnocultural factors in severe mental illness and rehabilitative services. Since 1997, she has been the principal investigator on three National Institute of Mental Health grants and serves as co-investigator at two NIMH-funded research centers in San Diego, the Child and Adolescent Services Center and the Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research at the University of California, San Diego.
Her current NIMH research examines the development of a culturally based family intervention for Mexican-Americans dealing with schizophrenia. She is also a co-investigator on other National Institutes of Health grants that focus on the cultural relevance of mental health services and on the development and cultural adaptation of interventions for Latino and other under-served and under-researched populations dealing with severe and persistent mental illness and co-morbid conditions.
Barrio has more than 20 years of social work practice experience in community mental health settings with multicultural populations. She also serves on the Services Research Scientific Merit Review Committee at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Presentation: Culturally Based Intervention Development: The Case of Latino Families Dealing with Severe Mental Illness
This presentation will provide an overview of the process of culturally based intervention development. Topics relevant to conducting this research include the literature on cultural adaptation, the stage model of intervention development, the incorporation of stakeholder perspectives, manual development, feasibility issues, recruitment and retention, and other methodological issues and concerns.
Barrio will draw examples from her current intervention project in which she developed a culturally based family intervention for Spanish-speaking Mexican-American families dealing with schizophrenia in a loved one. She will describe the seminal ethnographic work that spawned the culturally based components of the intervention and the central role of the heuristic model. She will illustrate the process of intervention development with a discussion of the challenges and lessons learned in working with community partners in real-world practice settings, as well as report on the preliminary findings of the intervention’s impact on family and consumer outcomes.
