文章基本信息

标题：Training for Research in Mental Health and HIV/AIDS Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations: Meeting the Needs of New Investigators
本地全文：下载
作者：Margarita Alegría
期刊名称：American journal of public health
印刷版ISSN：0090-0036
出版年度：2009
卷号：99
期号：Suppl 1
页码：S26-S30
DOI：10.2105/AJPH.2008.135996
语种：English
出版社：American Public Health Association
摘要：My experiences as a mentor of young investigators, along with conversations with a diverse pool of mentees, led me to question the ability of conventional research methods, problem formulation, and instruments to address the unique challenges of studying racial and ethnic minorities. Training of new investi-gators should prepare them to explore alternative research paradigms and atypical research strategies, such as community-based participatory research and Photovoice technique. Unconventional approaches to research may challenge common explanations for unmet needs, noncompliance with treatments, and poor service outcomes. Mentors may need to develop broader theoretical insights that will facilitate unconventional problem formulation. The teaching of scientific research and mentoring of young investigators who study minority populations should evolve along with the changing research environment. IN RESPONSE TO GROWING evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in health and treatment, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has encouraged research on racial and ethnic minorities and other underrepresented groups and made a strong commitment to recruiting and training racially and ethnically diverse students. Over the past 15 years, mentoring has changed dramatically because a racially and ethnically diverse pool of students has entered predoctoral, doctoral, and postdoctoral programs and has begun to focus on understudied populations.¹ Through a series of mechanisms (including the Research Centers for Minority Institutions of the Center for Research Resources, the National Institute of Mental Health–National Institute on Drug Abuse Minority Supplements, the National Institute of Mental Health Family Research Consortium, and the Loan Repayment Program of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities), these students have entered the research world with novel lines of inquiry and an admirable zest in tackling the colossal problems of HIV/AIDS and mental health, particularly among racial and ethnic minority groups. They have also brought forth profound questions about the nature of scientific research and created innovative approaches to data collection. Training and mentoring this diverse pool of investigators present new challenges to traditional programs. I aimed to describe problems posed by trainees who were examining understudied populations and to recommend to both trainers and funding agencies ways to address these concerns. As this dynamic generation of researchers enters the field, it is time to rethink old models of training to better fit their needs. For more than 10 years, I have mentored undergraduate and graduate students engaged in mental health and substance abuse services research, psychiatry residents, and minority junior faculty. These trainees have diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and come from various disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, sociology, social work, psychiatry, economics, and health policy. They participate in academic training programs geared toward the development of peer-reviewed research proposals and journal articles. Although these training programs are quite varied, they all follow a similar format; mentors provide advice and supervision in identifying research topics, developing appropriate methods, and conducting research. Mentors' interaction with mentees can be either prolonged (2 years in a postdoctoral fellowship) or of short duration (a week in a training workshop). My experiences as a mentor for academic trainees investigating understudied populations have given me insight into the challenges they face as they embark on their research. Their concerns about traditional research methods illustrate the shortcomings of traditional training models.