By Barbara Guiterrez
UM News

Daniel Santisteban

CORAL GABLES, FLA. (March 16, 2016)—The Dunspaugh-Dalton Community and Educational Well-Being Research Center (CEW) at the School of Education and Human Development has received a grant from the Health Foundation of South Florida to help several community partners improve their assessment and treatment of underserved clients with mental health issues.

“There is much to improve in the treatment of individuals who are most in need of quality counseling services for mental health and behavioral issues,” said UM Professor Daniel Santisteban, who heads the CEW. “We can and must do better for the most vulnerable in our community. This grant will allow us to work in a collaborative network. By focusing on evidence-based practices and the direct involvement of frontline providers, I believe we will.”

Through the $150,000 grant, the CEW will establish a practice improvement network with Banyan Health Systems, the Institute for Child and Family Health, and Camillus Health Concerns. The goal is to build the capacity of these health care organizations to provide evidence-based services for underserved populations.

The project is important, says Santisteban, because, although many innovative and effective evidence-based treatments in the areas of health promotion, mental health, and drug abuse have been developed through research, these treatments often fail to reach the frontlines of practice—falling short of the desired impact.

Within the network, the partners will work collaboratively to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of services for those who are typically vulnerable and hardest hit by individual, family, and community-level risk factors. The team will then identify, design, and select new evidence-based treatments and fund training opportunities for frontline service providers.