Advancing Health Equity: An Innovative Program for Building Community Engagement in Research.

BACKGROUND: The Community Research Fellows (CRF) program seeks to mobilize New Haven residents with lower incomes or from communities of color who are educated and equipped to engage as equal partners in health research at Yale University. The training program combines curriculum-based information with 'on-the-ground' experience with Yale research projects, while building relationships between CRFs and researchers. The Community Alliance for Research and Engagement launched two consecutive cohorts of the program in 2018-2020. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of the CRF program on participants' knowledge of the research process and confidence to engage in research and participants' satisfaction and perspectives on the program. METHODS: The evaluation of the CRF program included four components: 1) Pre- and Post- Program Surveys to assess change in confidence and self-reported knowledge. 2) Curriculum Feedback Satisfaction Survey to gauge satisfaction and make program improvements after each training session. 3) Post-Program CRF Interviews to explore their CRF experiences. 4) Research Team Surveys to assess program satisfaction and areas for improvement. RESULTS: CRFs reported increased confidence and knowledge, personal and professional growth, and interest in community-engaged research. Overall, participants were very satisfied with each training module. CONCLUSIONS: The CRF program demonstrated that community members are well-suited, well-positioned, and eager to engage in and inform public health research. CRFs bring capacity and valuable perspective to research teams. The CRF training program offers an innovative approach to address power imbalances in research and to move towards more equitable community-university partnerships for improved health outcomes.

Identifying strategies to advance equitable implementation of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder treatment in drug treatment courts: A study protocol.

Introduction: Behavioral health treatment disparities by race and ethnicity are well documented across the criminal legal system. Despite criminal legal settings such as drug treatment courts (DTCs) increasingly adopting evidence-based programs (EBPs) to improve care, there is a dearth of research identifying strategies to advance equitable implementation of EBPs and reduce racial/ethnic treatment disparities. This paper describes an innovative approach to identify community- and provider-generated strategies to support equitable implementation of an evidence-based co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder intervention, called Maintaining Independence and Sobriety through Systems Integration, Outreach and Networking-Criminal Justice (MISSION-CJ), in DTCs. Methods/design: Guided by the Health Equity Implementation Framework, qualitative interviews and surveys will assess factors facilitating and hindering equitable implementation of MISSION-CJ in DTCs among 30 Black/African American and/or Hispanic/Latino persons served and providers. Concept mapping with sixty Black/African American and/or Hispanic/Latino persons served and providers will gather community- and provider-generated strategies to address identified barriers. Finally, an advisory board will offer iterative feedback on the data to guide toolkit development and inform equitable implementation of MISSION-CJ within DTCs. Conclusions: The paper illustrates a protocol of a study based in community-engaged research and implementation science to understand multilevel drivers of racial/ethnic disparities in co-occurring disorder treatment and identify opportunities for intervention and improvements within criminal legal settings.