Digital Commons Network^™

Accessibility Of Mental Health Resources In Schools, Zitlaly Lizeth Cruz-Roman, Vianney Consepcion Sandoval

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine parents’ and staff’s perception of the accessibility and awareness of mental health resources in school. Mental health resources are made available in school settings; however, not all families and students are aware of the resources being provided. To address the accessibility of mental health resources, research needs to take place to understand why these resources are not being utilized. Individuals’ mental health will improve by creating awareness of the resources since they will be aware of the resources and use them based on their needs. The research project utilized quantitative research methods and descriptive research …

Evolution Of Stigma: Understanding The Progression Of Stigma On Receiving Mental Health Services Within Latinx Communities In The Inland Empire, Joanna Gutierrez, Ciel Rivas

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The stigmatization of mental health services within the Latinx community has led to the underutilization of these services within this population. This study examined whether the stigma on receiving mental health services has evolved over the years within the Latinx community of the Inland Empire region. An analysis of the evolution of this stigma brings insight on why this stigma exists, and what has made it increase or decrease. The study was conducted through a qualitative procedure; Individual interviews were conducted where the information gathered was analyzed through thematic analysis to identify overlapping ideas and topics. The findings supported that …

Barriers To Mental Health Supports And Resources Experienced By Online Graduate Social Work Students, Joseph B. Camacho

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The focus of this qualitative exploratory study was to examine barriers online graduate social work (MSW) students encountered in obtaining mental health services. To obtain relevant data, the researcher interviewed online MSW students at a public university in southern California. This project employed bottom-up data analysis techniques by using open and axial coding to categorize and synthesize varied participant experiences. Relationships between axial codes were identified and analysis provided a window into the student experience for these online graduate social work students.

This study uncovered a phenomenon that this author calls the participants’ “student experience” as they pursue their online …

Social Support Needs Of African American Single Parent Women Residing In Atlanta, Tyneisha Douglas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social workers may serve marginalized groups of people such as single parents who may face challenges and barriers to raising a healthy family. African American mothers are more likely to have adverse experiences with parenting without a partner or additional supportive primary caregiver than women in other racial groups. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the mental health challenges that impact African American women who are single parents. Social cognitive theory provided the theoretical framework for the study. Data were collected from individual interviews with ten parents from daycare centers in the metropolitan Atlanta area that …

Continuity Of Care For Adult Offenders With Severe And Persistent Mental Illnesses: An Action Research Study, Lakeshia C. Gonzalez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For decades, the representation of adults with severe and persistent mental illnesses (SPMI) in the criminal justice system has steadily grown despite public recognition and increased federal implementation of mental health courts and diversion programs. Though more is known about risk factors associated with psychiatric and criminal recidivism among this population, a gap in the literature remains on collaborative interventions and continuity of care between inpatient mental health and criminal justice facilities. Grounded in resilience theory, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine challenges social workers faced when attempting to facilitate discharge planning between inpatient mental health facilities …

Intersectional Invisibility Of Black Lgbtqia+ Client Strategies For Bias And Discrimination Prevention, Dr. Tonya Y. Griffith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract Those who identify as members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) communities have been victims of bias and prejudicial attitudes. Because LGBTQIA+ people embody all cultures, races, religious convictions, and socioeconomic statuses, this creates additional barriers for some community members who identify as both Black and LGBTQIA+. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore social workers’ perceptions of intersectional invisibility when working with Black LGBTQIA+ clients and the strategies that social workers identify as beneficial in averting discrimination and bias when working with this community. Implicit bias theory and intersectionality theory …

Loneliness As A Treatment Focus For Suicide Prevention In Airmen Who Seek Mental Health Care, Jovanna O. Gaines

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Department of Defense is challenged to decrease rising suicide rates in all branches of military service. Studies have consistently shown interpersonal risk factors versus intrapsychic factors as strong indicators of suicide risk, yet the practice has not focused on loneliness as a treatment focus for increased risk. This study explored clinical social workers’ view of loneliness as experienced in patients who are active-duty airmen to identify prevention, coping, and treatment strategies for managing suicides. The methodology involved a semistructured interview of 10 active duty licensed clinical social workers with greater than two years of experience working within a mental …

Women's Work History And Mental Well-Being : Evidence From The Indonesian Family Life Survey, Nurul Widyaningrum

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Most research on women and work in developing countries has focused on factors and contexts that shape women’s employment choices and options, gender segregation in the labor market, and the meaning of work for women. Studies on the outcomes or consequences of work are less common and tend to focus on income as the primary outcome of interest. Using a combined capability and feminist framework, this study identified Indonesian women’s work patterns and their relationship to women’s mental health. The capability approach was used to choose work outcomes that are not merely income-based, while the feminist perspective was used to …

Giving Birth At A Critical Time: Assessing Perinatal Depression Among Syrian Refugees In Low Resource Settings, Nada Alnaji

Theses & Dissertations

Refugee mothers are at an increased risk of suffering from stress and mental health conditions during the first year after giving birth to a child. The objective of this study is to enhance the early identification of treatable mental health conditions among perinatal women living within humanitarian settings. The central hypothesis is that a culturally specific approach can be helpful for the long-term success of mental health efforts. In this study, we use qualitative interview methods to understand the cultural paradigms and predisposing factors for perinatal depression related to being a Syrian refugee in Lebanon during the COVID-19 pandemic. In …

Mental Health Support For The Spanish-Speaking Community, America Yvonne Gutierrez Solorio

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Mariposa Wellness Center in Watsonville, CA empowers its mental health community through wellness, meaningful activity, and community connection. The purpose of the report is to focus and empower individuals on the long-existing issue of the lack of mental health support for the Spanish-speaking community. This report focuses on the importance of Hispanic individuals having access to proper mental health support in their community. The contributing factors in this report range from language barriers and stigma created within mental health illnesses to the lack of education. In addition, this report focuses on numerous consequences Hispanics face as they struggle with finding …

Professional Quality Of Life Of Mental Health Practitioners Doing Trauma Work, Ashley Larios, Ana Campos Chagolla

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

A practitioner’s reaction to client trauma can have both positive and negative impacts on the individual’s professional quality of life as well as the quality of services provided to the client. Professional quality of life embodies a practitioner’s compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious trauma. While past research has focused on factors that negatively impact professional quality of life, the proposed research aimed to explore what individual and agency factors help to positively increase professional quality of life. The study utilized a mixed methods approach, which included the participants scores on the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) as …

The Utilization Of Mental Health Education In Schools For Prevention Not Just Intervention, Ashley Williams

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The prevalence of mental illness in adolescents is more extensive than in previous years. In schools, social workers have been utilized to address mental health episodes in students, however, they generally do not get involved until the adolescent’s mental health episode is critical and unmanageable without social support. This needs to change. The purpose of this research study is to assess for adolescent’s knowledge of mental illness and mental wellness. The targeted population is school-aged children in grades K through 12, however the respondents of the study were student educators due to the protected status of school-aged children. This study …

Effectiveness Of Services And Interventions Provided To The Older Adult Population, Michelle Maldonado

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The older adult population is set to increase enormously in the United States. With a larger older adult population, there will also be an increased demand for services. This study worked to identify the effectiveness of mental health services being provided to older adults. Given that service providers are often provided minimal resources, providing efficient services assists with purposefully allocating resources. The study used the post positivist paradigm. The researcher developed a set of questions and conducted phone interviews with mental health service providers of older adults. After transcription, qualitative data analysis was completed to identify meaningful connections. The data …

Poor Academic Performance Caused By Social Anxiety, Erin Tayag, Leea Gonzales

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Social anxiety can have consequential effects on college students’ academic performance. Many students’ college experiences will involve some levels of anxiety. However, social anxiety is very distinct from natural anxiety. Considering the effects of social anxiety in a college setting, there are students whose grades can decrease due to non-performance in specific class activities or unfortunately discontinuing school. This research project desired to identify if social anxiety indeed affects college students’ academic performance. This study utilized a quantitative design by providing existing social anxiety scales to students through email and social media platforms. Within this design, three analyses were used: …

Treatment Access For Dual Diagnosis Substance Use And Mental Health Disorders, Pedro Banuelos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In 2018, of 1.3 million Latinx adults in the United States facing concurrent issues with substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health disorders (MHD) 93% remained untreated for either diagnosis. This is concerning since Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) data reveals that this population is at greater risk for suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. They also face structural barriers such as employment, housing, legal involvement, and insurability that further impede access to treatment.

This study’s purpose was to examine barriers to accessing treatment for Latinx populations confronting co-occurring SUDs and MHDs. This study used a qualitative design …

Mental Health Among The Latinx Population, Jocelyn Mendoza Sierra

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mental health in the Latinx community has been stigmatized for several years. In the Latinx community mental health is disregarded and oftentimes not addressed and overlooked by immediate family members. The purpose of this study is to address the reason why people do not access mental health services. The methods used in this study consisted of a qualitative approach and participants were asked open ended questions. A total of eleven participants (N=11) were gathered and consisted of both female and male participants who identify as Latinxs. The key findings from this research indicate that seeking mental health services was viewed …

Social Worker’S Adjustment And Perception When Dealing With Double-Exposure During A Natural Disaster, Magaly Santos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Limited research captures the perceptions and adjustments of social workers living and providing treatment in the same communities during a disaster. Few studies have captured the stressors and responsibilities put on social workers during an ongoing disaster. This paper reports the findings of the double-exposure captured using a qualitative approach in collecting interviews from nine mental health professionals who continued working during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A constructivist paradigm was used to capture each participant’s reality. Participants described the sudden change to remote work as difficult when having to find the balance between work and life demands, providing …

Perception Of Mental Health Among The Latinx Community, Jessica Garcia, Erica Valdez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of mental health among the Latinx community to identify factors contributing to the underutilization of mental health services. This exploratory study conducted qualitative interviews with 16 Latinx individuals. Participants were recruited through a non-probability snowball sampling method. Qualitative data analysis revealed themes, subthemes, and reoccurring concepts through three main focus areas: overall knowledge of mental illness and services, perception toward reasons for mental illness, and respondents’ feedback to increasing utilization of mental health services. Major themes that surfaced in this study on the perceptions toward mental illness reflected culture such …

Mental Health Services For Detained Youth, Arlene Padilla, Vanessa Salcedo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

On any given day thousands of youth are detained in a juvenile detention facility in the United States as a result of involvement in the juvenile justice and criminal system. Youth’s access to resources such as mental health services are often impacted by this. Therefore, the researchers of this study have analyzed the youth’s utilization and access to behavioral health services within the juvenile halls of Riverside County. Using a quantitative method, the researchers found statistically significant differences between the utilization of services from the 2015-2016 fiscal year to that of 2019-2020. Additionally, the researchers provided implications and recommendations. The …

Secondary Trauma And/Or Potential Impacts Related To Military Family Members, Andressa Young

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Military members who have experienced combat deployments are at a greater risk for mental health issues. This can often affect the families who are placed in the role of being a buffer for these returning military members. Furthermore, the prevalence of mental health issues within the military community being at an all-time high has created a parallel prevalence for the family members who are impacted by these military members dealing with mental health issues. This research project examined data and information that was collected both from individual military family members and from persons who directly provide supportive services to military …

Modeling Cumulative Risk During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Psychosocial And Socioeconomic Factors For Older Minority Adults, James F. Osborne Iv

LSU Master's Theses

Continued response to the sum consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has disparately affected the physical and mental health of older minority adults in the United States. SARS-CoV-2 created an acute epidemiological crisis of public health coinciding with a chronic pandemic of accentuated psychosocial stress. Biological and socio-economic risk of morbidity and mortality follow a demographic gradient of subjectively constructed social status that disproportionally threatens older adults and minority racial/ethnic communities. Pathways to increased socio-economic and psychosocial vulnerability are multifactorial and complex. Factors of race, socio-economic status, gender, and age, each contribute to individualized profiles of vulnerability to risk exposure.

The …

Resentenced And Released: Re-Entry Needs Following Release From Juvenile Life Without Parole, Daphne M. Brydon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over 2,100 individuals serving juvenile life without paroles (JLWOP) sentences in the U.S. became eligible for resentencing following the 2016 Montgomery v. Louisiana Supreme Court ruling. Michigan housed an estimated 370 juvenile lifers at that time, the second largest JLWOP community in the country and has since resentenced and released approximately 120 juvenile lifers. Folx released from prison encounter many barriers to successful re-entry. Barriers are often amplified for those incarcerated as adolescents. Further, services are de-prioritized for folx serving JLWOP sentences, which can be especially damaging for this community whose life experiences are marked by high rates of trauma, …

The Role Of Community Belongingness In The Mental Health And Well-Being Of Black Lgbtq Adults, Keith Justin Watts

Theses and Dissertations

The impact of racial and sexual minority stigma, prejudice, and discrimination on the mental health and well-being of Black and LGBTQ individuals, respectively, has been well documented in the literature. Research on these relationships for Black LGBTQ individuals who are multiply marginalized due to their position at the social intersections of gender identity, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity is less common. Belongingness to identity-based communities can protect against the negative impact of these minority stressors for Black and LGBTQ individuals and aid coping processes. However, Black LGBTQ individuals often experience stigma and discrimination in their racial, sexual, and gender minority communities …

Disclosing Mental Health: The Experience Of Post Secondary Students Transitioning Into A Career/Experiential Learning Environment, Jennifer Mei

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The stigma associated with mental health and underrepresentation of students with disabilities in higher education is well documented (Barnard-Brak, Lechtenberger, and Tan 2010, p. 411). This presents a disclosure problem for post-secondary students with mental health challenges who are transitioning into a career or experiential learning environment. If students require workplace accommodations, they may find themselves faced with a decision to disclose mental health challenges to a faculty supervisor, career services practitioner or potential employer. Difficulties with mental health can be experienced because of a diagnosed mental health disability or be a symptom of another diagnosable disability.

The research begins …

Mental Health And Latinx Empowerment Workshop For Youth, Rachel Mejia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Juvenile delinquency is a serious threat in at-risk cities such as Watsonville, California. Watsonville Police Activities League is a non-profit organization committed to preventing youth criminality. Poor mental health can lead to risk-taking and bad decision making in developing teens and pre-teens. The project was a week-long mental health workshop focused on advocating for the normalization of mental health and Latinx empowerment discussion among youth. The workshop took place throughout five days and reached eight middle school and high school students. The workshop focused on self care, stress management, mood disorders, self image, self esteem, and ethnic identity among other …

Critically And Creatively Engaging With Trauma-Informed Mental Health Research And Treatment Of Lgbtqia+ Communities As Expressive Arts Therapists: A Literature Review, Kelli Lavallee

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Expressive Arts Therapists are uniquely situated as both artists and mental health counselors working in psychological pedagogy rooted in systems of oppression. Given the arts-based approaches to the therapeutic relationship, it can be unethical to offer these approaches without acknowledgement of the ways in which the arts intersect with social justice, and justice is only viable if practitioners critically review the clinical mental health education they are consuming from the institutions they learn in, specifically trauma-informed mental health research assimilation and treatment approaches for Expressive Arts Therapists in training, practice, and education. A review of the literature in this paper …

Perceptions Of Mental Health Among Asian Pacific Islander College Students, Jenny Phan

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As part of the demands of higher education, college students undergo stressful events that have a negative impact on their mental health. Furthermore, Asian American Pacific Islander (API) Asian Pacific Islanders (API) face cultural and structural barriers that further influences individuals to ignore their mental well-being. Through interviews and surveys, this study aims to explore the current perceptions of mental health among API college students and the possible factors that prevent these students from addressing the mental health concerns through interviews obtaining student’s personal narratives. The findings are to enhance social work practice through becoming more culturally aware of the …

Mental Health Therapists' Views On The Challenges Latinos Face To Continue Services, Jessica Gutierrez, Elizabeth Casas-Valdovinos

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors leading Latinos to withdraw from mental health services through the perspective of mental health therapists. This study employed a qualitative design and data were collected from face-to-face and phone interviews with 10 therapists from Riverside and San Bernardino County. The results of this study identified that Latino client’s low levels of mental health literacy contributed to a higher level of mental health stigma that led to premature withdrawal from services. The study also found that language barrier and job-related issues were major challenges Latino families faced in their continuation of …

The Challenges Of Acculturating In The Los Angeles County: Immigrants Of Latin American Countries, Melissa Saldana-Alvarez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study intends to identify the barriers that may impede new immigrants from successfully acculturating in the United States. The researcher collected qualitative data through audio-recorded face-to-face-interviews with the participants. Participants were recruited through a local agency that provides a number of services to immigrant in the community. Data collected was transcribed and analyzed for the development of categories of individual, family, group, organizational, and community involvement in the lives of new immigrants who attempt to acculturate in this country. The research findings reveal the need for mental health, medical, and educational services, and workshops about rights and laws in …

Mental Health Challenges Among Ethnic Minorities College Students, Fiorella G. Valles, Ruben Gonzalez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research study explored the challenges of mental health-seeking services of college students of color in the San Bernardino area. College students of different ethnicities have unique needs and challenges that contrast with the general student population. Previous research stated that students of color deal with a greater number of unmet mental health needs and indicates a connection between mental health and attaining a college degree (Arria et al., 2013). To increase the utilization of mental health amongst students of color, this study aimed to identify the influencing factors that prevented students from help-seeking. The research design of this research …