CSDE Affiliates Jody O. Early (Nursing and Health Studies) and Carmen Gonzalez (Communications) in partnership with colleagues Janessa Graves (School of Medicine)  and Julia Simoes (Communication) recently published a research brief,  “Advancing Community-Based Mental Health Promotion: An Evaluation of a Bilingual Lay Mental Health Navigator Program“, in the peer reviewed journal, Health Promotion Practice.  Early, Gonzalez, and co-authors presents evaluation results of Mental Health Matters of Washington’s Peer Mental Health Navigator (PMHN) program, which provides six-weeks of bilingual training to lay community members who go on to provide peer mental health support, education, and resource navigation Researchers used a non-controlled pre- and post-design with a 12-month follow up survey across seven cohorts of Spanish and English-speaking peer navigators (n = 141) over three years.  Results demonstrated significant improvements across outcome measures, with the largest effect sizes observed in self-efficacy (d=0.70-0.96). Qualitative analysis revealed high program satisfaction, with participants particularly valuing comprehensive resources, skilled facilitation, and culturally responsive content. Twelve-month follow-up indicated sustained engagement and skill application. The findings support increased investment in community-driven, culturally and linguistically attune  mental health promotion strategies that go beyond clinical interventions.

CSDE External Affiliate Maria Y. Rodriguez (University at Buffalo) served as co-editor for a special issue of Research on Social Work Practice on “Social Work Science and Advanced Computational Methods.” Rodriguez and co-editor, Jo Ann Lee, argue that advanced computational methods can help us work toward solving complex social issues. The included manuscripts leverage cutting edge methods like agent-based modeling, network science, and LLMs, all within specific practice-contexts, with the aim of offering actionable solutions to pressing practice problems. The manuscripts also suggest that advanced computational methods require social work insight and ethics to work best for humans. Dr. Rodriguez is actively recruiting doctoral students for her lab: her research page has more details.