Agenda at a Glance - Thursday, March 13, 2008

8:30 – 9:00am   Welcome and Opening Remarks - Eduardo Morales, PhD;  Nolan Zane, Ph.D Ronald F. Levant, Ed.D., ABPP

9:00 – 10:40am Plenary Panel I: Has Policy Jumped the Gun?  The Collision Between Science and Community

Chair:  Ronald F. Levant, Ed.D., ABPP, The University of Akron
Luis Vargas, Ph.D., University of New Mexico
Felipe Castro, Ph.D., Arizona State University
Nancy Carter, NAMI Urban Los Angeles
Alan Kazdin, Ph.D., ABPP, Yale University

11:00am – 12:30pm Plenary Panel II: Obtaining the Evidence:  The Context and Challenges in Methods and  Measurement for Racial/Ethnically Diverse Populations

Chair:  Mia Smith Bynum, Ph.D.
Nolan Zane, Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Margarita Alegria, Ph.D., Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School
Antonio Polo, Ph.D., DePaul University
Stanley Huey, Jr., Ph.D., University of Southern California
Mario Hernandez, Ph.D., University of South Florida

1:00 – 1:45pm Keynote: Moving Evidence Based Interventions to Practice: The Blending Initiative
H. Westley Clark, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., Center for Substance Abuse Treatment/SAMHSA
Introduction: Norman B. Anderson, Ph.D., American Psychological Association

2:00 – 5:00pm Workshop Presentations
          
1. Empirical and Conceptual Approaches to Ethnically Diverse Populations and the Integration of Indigenous Evidence
Robert Sellers, Ph.D., University of Michigan
Valerie Naquin, M.A., Cook Inlet Tribal Council Inc.
Shannon Sommer, BSW, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Inc.

2. Depression and Affective Disorders:  Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment
Ricardo F. Muñoz, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco
Donna Barnes, Ph.D., Howard University & National Organization of People of Color against Suicide

3. Family Interventions
Guillermo Bernal, Ph.D., University of Puerto Rico
Norweeta Milburn, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Trina Osher, M.A., Consultant; Former Director of Policy at the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health

4. Multicultural Assessment
Giuseppe C. Costantino, Ph.D., Lutheran Medical Center
Glenn C. Gamst, Ph.D., University of La Verne

5. Interventions with Children
Dolores Subia BigFoot, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Michael A. Ramirez de Arellano, Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina

6. Evidence-Based Practice with Ethnic Minority Populations in Community-Based Addiction Treatment
Barbara C. Wallace, Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
 Arthur MacNeill Horton, Jr., Ed.D., ABPP, ABPN

7. Ethical and Culturally Congruent Research and Interventions with Communities and IRB in Community Settings 
Joseph Trimble, Ph.D., Western Washington University
Terry S. Gock, Ph.D., M.P.A., Director, Asian Pacific Family Center, Pacific Clinics

8. Incorporating Qualitative Research Methods into Clinical Research with Diverse Populations
Peter Guarnaccia, Ph.D., Rutgers University
Alfiee Breland-Noble, Ph.D., Duke University Medical Center

5:00 – 7:00pm Reception with APA, Federal and Vendor Booths

Agenda at a Glance - Friday, March 14, 2008

8:00 – 8:15am       Overview of Day 2 and Recap of Conference Goals
Eduardo Morales, Ph.D., California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University
Nolan Zane, Ph.D., University of California, Davis

8:15 – 10:15am   Plenary Panel III: Perspectives from Researchers in the Field: Critical Collaborations from the Ground and Up
     
Chair: Carol Falender, Ph.D., Independent Practice; University of California, Los Angeles
Charlotte Brown, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Teresa LaFromboise, Ph.D., Stanford University
Anna Lau, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Phillippe B. Cunningham, Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina 

10:30am - 12:00pm  Plenary Panel IV: Innovative Models for Collaboration 

Chair:  Natalie Porter, Ph.D., California School of Professional Psychology,  Alliant International University
Bart K. Aoki, Ph.D., California HIV/AIDS Research Program  
Carla Dillard-Smith, M.P.A., Cal-PEP Inc.
Representatives from CDC 

12:00 - 1:00pm    Luncheon Discussion Tables

1:00 - 3:00pm     Town Hall Meeting
    
Co-Facilitator: Eduardo Morales, Ph.D., California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University
Co-Facilitator: Sharon R. Jenkins, Ph.D., University of North Texas

Historical Information
In its most recent national convention, the American Psychological Association adopted a policy that (a) defined evidence-based practice in psychology (EBPP), (b) affirmed the importance and utility of using EBPs to enhance health, and (c) delineated the various principles that guide EBPP. The new APA policy defines EBPP as “the integration of the best available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture, and preferences.” Essentially, effective psychological treatment involves 3 critical processes:  (a) applying the best available research evidence in the selection and application of treatments, (b) using clinical expertise that encompasses a number of competencies that have been found to promote positive therapeutic outcomes, and (c) being responsive to the patient’s characteristics, culture, and personal preferences (APA Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice, 2006).

Evidence-based Practices and Cultural Competence

From a multicultural perspective, it is clear that psychological services are most effective when responsive to the patient’s specific problems, strengths, personality, sociocultural context, and preferences. Thus, attending to ethnocultural aspects of the patient is a critical and essential component of EBPP. However, since 1978, various presidential commissions have documented ethnic disparities in mental health in terms of the unmet mental health needs of members of ethnic minority groups such as African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Latino/as (Commission on Mental Health to the Surgeon General, 1978; President’s New Freedom Commission, 2003). These commissions concluded that the disparities were not so much due to racial and ethnic differences in rates of psychopathology but were due to inaccessible and ineffective treatment.  Ethnic minority clients often saw therapists or were administered treatments that did not provide consideration of the clients’ lifestyles, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and life circumstances. In view of the policy adopted by APA on EBPP, those very considerations involving the patient’s culture and race are essential to effective psychological practice. Clearly, this is a major priority for EBPP and our profession.

Purpose and Goals

The conference has two major goals:

• To inform and stimulate interest and activity in generating impactful research and evaluation efforts in the development of evidence-  based practices for ethnic minority populations.  
•  To identify and refine strategies for effectively translating research on evidence-based practices into adaptations that can be effective for serving ethnic minority clientele and communities. 

The target audience is researchers, program administrators, policy-makers, leading care providers, consumer representatives, and program evaluators who are active in conducting intervention research and/or practice with ethnic minorities. It is very important that all these groups of stakeholders are represented in the conference. The input of consumers, practitioners, administrators, policy-makers is critical to developing research strategies and priorities along with implementation strategies that can be optimally useful and relevant for how evidence-based practices are actually applied in mental health services to ethnic minority communities and clientele.