Welcome to the Center for Mental Health Disparities
The Center for Mental Health Disparities
My colleagues and I are thrilled about the synergy that has been created through our unwavering commitment to eliminate mental health disparities. By way of introduction, it is important to provide a historical perspective of why the Center for Mental Health Disparities (CMHD) was created at the University of Louisville. In 2002, The American Psychological Association's Council of Representatives approved the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists that was created by a joint task forces comprised of members of Divisions 17 (Counseling Psychology) and 45 (The Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues). The result of this work was a very cogent and thorough 103-page document underscoring the importance of cultural awareness, knowledge, and skill when interacting with racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Within these guidelines, the task force goes on to describe the changing ethnic and racial landscape within the United States along with the specific shift from treating culture as a mere nuisance variable in psychological research to the undeniable need to treat race and ethnicity as central and specific contextual variables in our work.
Along these lines, the notion of being “culture-centered” in research endeavors indicates that we as mental health professionals owe it to our profession, community, and society to engage in programs of research aimed at treating race and ethnicity as central constructs in our investigations. Hence, the University of Louisville deemed the mission of the CMHD as corroborating it's commitment to serving a diverse society while becoming a premier metropolitan research institution. Again, we are absolutely delighted that you have visited our website and we are committed to responding promptly to any of your inquiries.
Sincerely,
L. Kevin Chapman, Ph.D., Director
Center for Mental Health Disparities
News & Upcoming Events
Recent Publications
Chapman, L. K., Petrie, J., & Vines, L.: The factor structure of the SCL-90 in a community-based sample of African American adults, Psychiatry Research (to appear).
Petrie, J., Chapman, L. K., & Vines, L.: The clinical utility of the Positive and Negative Affect Scales - Extended Version (PANAS X) in predicting anxiety disorders in African American adults: A receiver operating characteristic analysis. Journal of Black Psychology (to appear).
Williams, M.T., Steever, A.: Cultural Manifestations of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, World Journal of Psychiatry (to appear).
Williams, M. T., Chapman, L. K., Wong, J., Turkheimer, E.: The Role of Ethnic Identity in Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in African Americans, Psychiatry Research. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2012.03.049 (to appear).
Williams, M.T., Elstein, J., Buckner, E., Abelson, J., Himle, J. (2012). Symptom Dimensions in Two Samples of African Americans with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive & Related Disorders, 1 (3), 145-152.