The Action Research Podcast

This episode highlights the intersection of school-based mental health, community well-being, immigration, and the integration of decolonized and culturally grounded approaches to social work practice and mental health service provision. Podcast Guests: Arlene Bjugstad (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Arlene has more than fifteen years of social work practice experience in non-profit organizations, county social service agencies, PK-12 schools, and communities. Arlene's practice and research interests are at the intersection of school-based mental health, community well-being, and immigration. She is particularly interested in decolonized and culturally grounded approaches to social work practice and mental health service provision. Dr. Jodi Berger Cardoso has over 15 years of clinical experience working with immigrant populations. Dr. Cardoso’s research examines how exposure to trauma and psychosocial stress before, during and post-migration affects the mental health of Latino immigrants and their children. Recently, she received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine the effects of immigration enforcement on the mental health outcomes of Latino youth. Dr. Cardoso works with several humanitarian organizations that focus on providing legal and mental health services to immigrants, unaccompanied minor youth, and refugees who have experienced trauma.  Learn more: www.uh.edu/socialwork

"Charge Up!"—a team-based intervention aimed at bolstering mental health and housing stability for youth transitioning from homelessness to housing. It's crucial to note that a significant portion of young adults facing housing instability also grapple with mental health issues. However, existing Rapid Rehousing programs often lack dedicated mental health services. Through the Charge Up intervention, we've integrated a mental health role, focusing on a person-centered approach to delivering crucial mental health services to young adults in transitional and rapid rehousing programs. To ensure its effectiveness, we actively sought input from various stakeholders, including the youth advisory board, case managers, and other relevant parties involved in the development of Charge Up. Charge Up Team Members: Sarah Carter Narendorf, LCSW, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development Graduate College of Social Work focuses on ensuring a successful transition to adulthood for marginalized young people. She is particularly interested in the transition to young adulthood for youth with mental disorders who face additional challenges including homelessness and involvement in foster care or the juvenile justice system. This interest has led me to investigate where, when, and what type of services can most effectively support these young people as they navigate both developmental and institutional transitions. Her interest in mental health services stems from a decade of practice experience working with children, youth, and adults across the continuum of care from school outreach to the maximum security unit of a state mental hospital. Her interest in adolescent mental health began in Houston through her work doing street outreach with Youth Advocates, Inc. and Communities in Schools. Her practice experience informs both her teaching and research and has fueled her desire to ensure that her research is relevant to social work practitioners. Marcus Brown, MSW, LCSW is a fourth-year PhD social work student, a twelve-year mental health practitioner, and a licensed clinical social worker. Marcus has over ten years of experience in the social work profession, where he served in various social work roles in inpatient and outpatient mental health settings. Marcus is an upcoming social worker scholar and educator whose research focuses on Black adults with serious mental illness and their help-seeking for formal care, informal care, or both. Justin “Prince” Hayward is a young adult advocate whose friends call him Prince. His positive and negative experiences in CPS and being homeless have made him into the man he is today. Currently, Mr. Hayward is an active leader in the Houston area and not only a member of two other formal young adult advocacy boards, including Travis County Child Welfare Re-Imagined Family Preservation Leadership Council (FPLC) and National Youth Forum on Homelessness, He is also an appointed member of DFPS Public Private Partnership Council (PPP). Prince has led several trainings such as preventing runways and has been very effective at using his story to advocate for policy changes & budget increases at the state capitol. Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

In this episode, we will explore the coping style among middle school youth and also assess how that is related to symptoms of depression and anxiety over time to develop preventive interventions for schools. Caitlyn Mytelka is a recent Ph.D. graduate from the GCSW and is a licensed social worker in Texas. She has a bachelor’s degree from NYU and a Master’s in social work from UT Austin. Caitlyn’s research focuses on positive youth development in diverse school settings. Caitlyn’s dissertation examined the reciprocal relationship between coping style and symptoms of depression and anxiety in early adolescents over time. Her long-term research goals are to inform and develop equitable preventive school interventions to improve youth well-being and development.

In this episode, podcast host Anil Arora shares how the H.E.A.R. Lab team is creating change in how traditional dissemination occurs with one-pagers, social media, newsletters, and the launch of the lab's annual Walk N' Listen this month. The host acknowledges the current events that continue to impact individuals differently and how listeners can step up to be open-minded in these situations. As we share what Season 3 has in store, we hope that you will listen along to our Action Research Podcast. Podcast host Anil Arora is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Colorado and California. He is a doctoral student at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where his research focuses on military and veteran individuals and their families. Anil is a first-generation Indian American, and he personally recognizes how culture, boundaries, research, literature, family, and much of life can be seen through different lenses among individuals. Anil has a passion for learning but often notices that access to knowledge can be hard to access and difficult to understand. His experiences with being a research participant, being part of a research team, and now conducting his research pushes him to make research more accessible. Being a part of the Hub for Engaged Action Research (HEAR) Lab has allowed him to co-create different products with team members to have research accessible on different mediums (one-pager, podcast, social media). As the current host of the Action Research Podcast, he is excited to continue learning and centering the voices of community members within research. Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

In the pursuit of understanding the surge in health issues and fatalities among Black women in contrast to other racial and ethnic communities, we lend an attentive ear to the narratives of Black women, delving into their experiences during the perinatal period, and diligently assess the factors that underlie the heightened rates of morbidity and mortality in their communities. Integrating the invaluable experiences of Black Women into the existing literature, shedding more light on this pressing issue. Dr. Chinyere Eigege received her Ph.D. and MSW in social work from the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Dr. Eigege uses qualitative research methods to examine, advocate for, and inform best practices around the perinatal mental health care of Black women. Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

Healthy Start is a national program that helps improve the lives of mothers, infants, and families before, during, and beyond pregnancy. Through coordinated care case management, home visits, outreach, and education, Healthy Start seeks to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, increase access to prenatal care, and remove barriers to service. Houston has high rates of infant and maternal mortality, with black mothers being most at risk. The program aims to address these inequities through its community-based approach and by partnering with organizations and individuals from these communities. Dr. McClain Sampson's published research focuses on factors that influence maternal mental and physical health. She has published articles on her postpartum depression home visiting intervention, racial/ethnic disparities of postpartum depression, and the use of Motivational Interviewing in health care. She completed her postdoctoral research fellowship with Baylor College of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. At that time, she worked on a CDC Funded project to reduce the risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancy among low-income women in Harris Health integrated healthcare centers. Effective interventions for maternal behavioral health continue to be a priority for Dr. Sampson as she develops her research agenda. Dr. Sampson is active in several community-engaged research projects. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator for the Department of Health and Human Service/HRSA funded programs: GLOBE and UH Healthy Start. GLOBE aims to increase the number of clinical behavioral health social workers.  The Healthy Start program aims to decrease maternal and infant mortality in Houston’s hardest-hit communities, where African-American mothers and infants die at disproportionately higher rates than others. LaSondra Noil LaSondra Noil is a qualified professional with over 21 years of experience in the education and social services field. With a specific focus on working with diverse populations within various settings, including child protection, mental health, maternal and child health systems, dental education, and clinical settings. LaSondra’s goals are rooted in motivating and coaching consumers to obtain self-sufficiency in the areas of social development, education attainment, and medical and mental health access. Wen Xu is a PhD candidate at the University of Houston, focusing her research on maternal and child health, social determinants of health, and the intersection of health and technology. She earned her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis and is licensed as a Master of Social Work in Texas. Prior to her PhD program, Wen served as a social work instructor and rural child protection project manager in China. Her dissertation uses a narrative approach to explore the experiences of becoming a mother in contemporary Mainland China. Wen has published several peer-reviewed articles and presented at various national and international conferences. Currently, she works as a data analyst at Healthy Start, where she assists and monitors daily data efforts to inform better program implementation. Learn more about the Maternal Health Equity Research and Training Center at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work HERE Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

Researchers at the University of Houston are training undergraduate pre-med students and providing free cognitive tests to Houston’s senior community that participants can bring to their primary care providers. These tests are usually inaccessible with a long waiting list. The group has also partnered with Vietnamese doctors and nurses in Houston to disseminate one-pagers about Alzheimer’s disease in their offices in English and Vietnamese. The educational approach piloted this year has met a need in the community and illustrated that many older people are interested in knowing about their brain health. Dr. Christina Miyawaki received her MSW with an emphasis in gerontology from the University of California, Berkeley, and PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Her research interests include health and health disparities of older adults of color and the well-being of older adults and their informal caregivers among diverse populations including immigrants and refugees. Kim Nguyen is an undergraduate student majoring in Public Health and minoring in Biology and Medicine & Society with a pre-medical track. She migrated from Vietnam to Houston 6 years ago and has been involved in researching the Vietnamese community for 3 years alongside Dr. Miyawaki. Kim's research interest involves the underserved community with special interests in the Vietnamese community, people with disabilities, people with rare diseases, and equal access to healthcare services. Angel Nguyen is a first-generation Asian American and a Senior with a degree in Public Health and a minor in Biology who is applying to medical school next year. Passionate about addressing health disparities and learning what it means to be a healer.   Learn more at ⁠uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch⁠

Dr. Lindamarie Olson is a recent PhD graduate from the GCSW, advocating for a more responsive and just system for youth who have experienced trauma and have found themselves in contact with the juvenile justice system. Olson’s dissertation looked at the effectiveness of neurofeedback in treating trauma symptomatology, as well as internalizing and externalizing behaviors of youth who were in residential treatment.   Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

In the first episode of Season 2, host Anil Arora speaks to Dr. Samira Ali about dissertations, racial justice principles, and positionality.    Dr. Ali’s scholarship focuses on community-based participatory research (CBPR), primary and secondary HIV prevention, and the impact of structural conditions on youth and women’s health behaviors in global and local settings. Specifically, in a recent project, she utilized a CBPR framework and mixed-methods design to explore sex worker mothers’ relationship and sexual health communication with their adolescent children in Kolkata, India. Particularly, with the sex worker community in Kolkata, she designed, implemented, and tested the feasibility of culturally tailored, family-based sexual health communication intervention. She also serves as principal investigator on a team of academic and community partners in New York City for a series of community-based studies examining the impact of housing as a structural intervention on risk behaviors and mental health of women living with HIV.   Dr. Ali mentions the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work’s Racial Justice Principles. Learn more at https://www.uh.edu/socialwork/about/racial-justice-at-the-gcsw/racial-justice-principles/index     Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

Guests Dr. Quenette Walton and Priscilla Kennedy talk about the importance of using qualitative methods when measuring the effects of Covid-19 and racism on Black women’s mental health and identity. Dr. Quenette L. Walton, LCSW is an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Maternal Health Equity Research and Training Center in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston. Dr. Walton is among a handful of U.S. scholars that specifically investigates how social class, gender, culture, and race affects the mental health and well-being of Black middle-class women. Thus, the aims of her research program are to build knowledge and develop theory that informs policies, practices, and culturally relevant and evidence-based interventions in order to reduce depression and increase well-being among middle-class Black women. Because depression and well-being do not occur in isolation, Dr. Walton also focuses on social class, gender, culture, and race as intersectional social determinants of health and mental health disparities. Priscilla is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston. Her dissertation explores the lived experiences of graduate social work students who participated in a course that focused on structural racism as it is manifested in the system of mass incarceration. Priscilla is also interested in understanding how social work students with dominant social identities learn to address their positionality, power, and privilege in relation to their roles in discriminatory systems. Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

This episode focuses on the research experience of two youth experts and two researchers from UH who use a community-based participatory research design to prioritize AAPI youth voice. They seek to build knowledge about how AAPI teenagers across diverse ethnicities experience civic engagement and what they perceive as barriers and supports to their civic activities. Selena Wang is a second-generation Chinese-American and a current Senior at Cypress Ranch high school who is passionate about social justice, specifically regarding topics impacting the AAPI community.  Ziyad Rahman is a senior at the Awty International high school in Houston. Both are part of a team of youth experts with the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work looking to reduce civic inequality.  Carunya (Caro) Achar is a MSW student who understands the importance of recognizing how different layers of one’s identity and environment can impact a person.  Dr. Suzanne Pritzker is an associate professor of social work at UH. As a social work practitioner and as a researcher, she focuses on supporting civic engagement and reducing structural barriers that impede people's ability to participate in policy decision-making that impacts their lives.  Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch

Hate crimes are crimes that target an individual based on an aspect of their identities like gender or sexual orientation, religion, or race. Besides hurting the victim, these crimes are meant to intimidate anyone that identifies with the victim. Hate crimes are often hard to prosecute as definitions of hate crimes vary by state and federal government, with many definitions being very narrow.  The team’s research investigates and helps to articulate how community-based organizations respond to hate crimes. This takes the cooperation of many people including law enforcement, district attorneys, and an array of community-based organizations.      We will hear from Aabha Davé Brown who was a former professor at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work and is co-founder of Collective Experience Group, a consulting firm that supports capacity development in organizations and individuals seeking to become more effective and justice-oriented in their work. She will bring her professional experience of over 20 years of working in the non-profit and educational sectors as well as consulting with a number of corporations, law enforcement, and social service organizations. Currently, she is an organizational consultant, award-winning educator, speaker, and licensed social worker. She uses the connections between art and science to address inequities in systems and foster institutional and interpersonal change.    Our second guest is Marjorie A. Joseph currently serves as the Executive Director for Houston Coalition Against Hate. HCAH is a network of community-based organizations, institutions, and leaders who come together to reduce hate and encourage belonging. MJ, as many call her, is a leader, visionary, and advocate. She is the originator of the #JusticeOverEquity framework in order to facilitate societal/cultural shifts and transformation. She is the recipient of the 2021 United Nations Association-Houston’s Global Citizenship Award for her work with the Coalition, also recognized by The Center for the Healing of Racism’s 2021 Juneteenth Ally Award. Marjorie is excited to herald the work of HCAH and feels privileged to be living in the most diverse and 4th largest city in the country.   Our final guest is Zoe Alterman who is an LMSW with a bachelor's degree in corporate communications from the University of Texas and just recently graduated with her master's in social work from the University of Houston graduate College of social work where she focused on politics. She currently works as a director of special projects at emerge fellowship a nonprofit working to expand college access for high-performing students from low-income communities.    Learn More: https://research.uh.edu/reaching-houston/stories/understanding-community-response-to-hate-crimes/   Read the Report: https://houstonagainsthate.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hate-in-Houston-FINAL.pdf

We connect with Devonte Hill, Community Health Worker, Aly Kramer Jacobs, Ph.D. student, and Dr. Sarah Narendorf, Associate Dean of Research at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work to talk about law enforcement interactions with young adults experiencing housing instability.  Their research was co-created by scholars who experienced housing instability and explored the challenges police present in their interactions. Learn more at ⁠uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch⁠

This episode of the Action Research Podcast begins with your host Anil Arora having a conversation with Dr. Sarah Narendorf and Jody Gardner about the inception of the HEAR Lab while also sharing about activities the HEAR Lab does to create public impact scholarship. Learn more at uh.edu/socialwork/actionresearch