Please join Carolina Health Informatics Program on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 11:00am for Dr. Terika McCall's dissertation presentation on mHealth for Mental Health: Culturally-tailored Interventions for Managing Anxiety and Depression in African American Women.
Seminar Abstract:
The rates of mental illness among African American women are comparable to the general population (20.6% vs. 19.1%), however, they significantly underutilize mental health services compared to their white counterparts (10.2% vs. 27.2%). Previous studies revealed that mHealth interventions increase access to mental health services and resources, and are effective in reducing anxiety and depression. Approximately 80% of African American women own smartphones. This presents a great opportunity to use mobile technology to help reduce the disparity in mental health service utilization and improve health outcomes. The purpose of the dissertation study was to examine the attitudes and perceptions of African American women towards using mental health services, and the feasibility of using mobile technology to deliver mental health services and resources. Several key questions for focus include:
Biosketch: Dr. Terika McCall, PhD, MPH, MBA is a National Library of Medicine Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale Center for Medical Informatics. Dr. McCall received her Ph.D. in Health Informatics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on reducing disparities in mental health service utilization through the use of technology. Dr. McCall’s research is interdisciplinary and focuses on issues related to the acceptance, design, development, and use of mHealth applications for mental wellness.
Register in advance for this meeting here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.