Will this type of research make application stronger?

[newtopsych]

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Hello,

I am trying to make my application more competitive and would like to know if clinical PhD programs would value this type of research experience. I will be organizing a first ever mental health forum for an ethnic community in this metro area, using a combination of dialogues and presentations. Mental health is really stigmatized in this community and we don't really talk about mental health issues. We suspect that many are experiencing psychological difficulties, particularly the seniors, who were refugees and who experienced a lot of trauma during and after a war, but are not accessing counseling services. This community is also divided and experiencing a lot of internal distrust. The seniors is our target audience for this forum.

So I was thinking that this forum could be an exploratory research. I will still be doing this forum regardless, but would put in more effort and be more cautious, i.e. consent forms, etc., if I considered it a research. The dialogues (research questions/areas) will mainly be around this community defining what mental health is for them (might be different than mainstream definition), the psychological symptoms that they might be experiencing, and how their past trauma may have contributed to some of these symptoms. I will be mainly using the dialogues as data, as well as a survey if needed. I think it's more community psychology, but would clinical psychology PhD programs value this kind of exploratory research experience.

I also plan on writing up the results to submit for publication, but this likely won't be completed before December deadlines. Btw, my research interest for graduate school will be trauma resulting from childhood abuse, so a different type of trauma than what will be explored at the forum. Thanks for reading, any input/suggestions is appreciated.

 

[Doctor Eliza]

I think there are actually two questions here: 1. Will this research look good? 2. Is it a good idea to make this intervention into research?

1. Yes, I don't see how it could hurt your application.

2. This is more complex. You are dealing with a population already hesitant to deal with mental health services. Adding the scrutiny and formality of research to you intervention could be extremely off-putting. I think this is especially likely if this is a community that has been stigmatized by others in authority (e.g., medical professionals, police, etc.) Turning it into research could backfire and prevent people from taking advantage of your services. I would seek a lot of consultation from professionals who have worked with this community and ask their thoughts about this issue.

Best,
Dr. E

 

[LETSGONYR]

I think there are actually two questions here: 1. Will this research look good? 2. Is it a good idea to make this intervention into research?

1. Yes, I don't see how it could hurt your application.

2. This is more complex. You are dealing with a population already hesitant to deal with mental health services. Adding the scrutiny and formality of research to you intervention could be extremely off-putting. I think this is especially likely if this is a community that has been stigmatized by others in authority (e.g., medical professionals, police, etc.) Turning it into research could backfire and prevent people from taking advantage of your services. I would seek a lot of consultation from professionals who have worked with this community and ask their thoughts about this issue.

Best,
Dr. E

In addition to what Dr. E said, there are some other issues that immediately came to my mind...

First, if you are going to be collecting data about what symptoms people are experiencing, you'd likely need to have a plan for intervention if something was disclosed to you. Most IRB's, I would imagine, would consider being more cognizant of personal symptoms, or barriers to getting help, or discussing traumatic histories, etc. etc. to be "risk"... especially in a marginalized, underserved population. In order to get approval, your study would need to be able to ensure the clients' safety, and in a forum such as that, it seems unlikely that you would be able to adequately intervene if any serious issues arose.

A survey about attitudes towards mental health professionals, or mental health in general, is a lot easier... when you get into specifics of people's personal symptoms and histories, you have to be a lot more careful and it gets a lot harder. It's definitely noble work, but this does not seem like the appropriate forum for that.

EDIT: Not to discourage you! It's definitely a noble goal, and something you can continue to work towards. But, especially as someone who has not even started graduate school, it seems a bit too ambitious. A survey of mental health attitudes or something can be a great foundation for future research, and can easily become a poster or even an article. I'd strongly recommend talking to an advisor or someone, though, to see what they think is reasonable and what is not.

 

[psychology24]

Hello,

I am trying to make my application more competitive and would like to know if clinical PhD programs would value this type of research experience. I will be organizing a first ever mental health forum for an ethnic community in this metro area, using a combination of dialogues and presentations. Mental health is really stigmatized in this community and we don't really talk about mental health issues. We suspect that many are experiencing psychological difficulties, particularly the seniors, who were refugees and who experienced a lot of trauma during and after a war, but are not accessing counseling services. This community is also divided and experiencing a lot of internal distrust. The seniors is our target audience for this forum.

So I was thinking that this forum could be an exploratory research. I will still be doing this forum regardless, but would put in more effort and be more cautious, i.e. consent forms, etc., if I considered it a research. The dialogues (research questions/areas) will mainly be around this community defining what mental health is for them (might be different than mainstream definition), the psychological symptoms that they might be experiencing, and how their past trauma may have contributed to some of these symptoms. I will be mainly using the dialogues as data, as well as a survey if needed. I think it's more community psychology, but would clinical psychology PhD programs value this kind of exploratory research experience.

I also plan on writing up the results to submit for publication, but this likely won't be completed before December deadlines. Btw, my research interest for graduate school will be trauma resulting from childhood abuse, so a different type of trauma than what will be explored at the forum. Thanks for reading, any input/suggestions is appreciated.

IMO, this sounds like a great qualitative research project (if you are into that kind of thing). If you are exploring how this particular community perceives mental health, the barriers with mental health treatment, etc. then exploratory-descriptive research could be especially helpful in later developing hypothesis-testing, intervention and quantitative research. As per your initial question about whether or it would look good or not for grad schools- my suggestion would be to see how much your programs value qualitative research (some look at with disdain, while others highly favor it). All in all, I think if you turn this into a research project (of any kind) it shows you have can demonstrate that extra effort and you have an interest in research.

 

[newtopsych]

Thank you, everyone. These are all important ethical concerns that I need to think through. I have several more follow up questions, please help. This will be a full day forum, with the goal of reducing stigma and increasing access to mental health services. It will be organized by a nonprofit that is part of this community (I volunteer on this project).

1. We will try to make the forum as informal as possible. Facilitators and presenters will be bilingual and bicultural, and small and large group dialogues should help make it less formal. I was already planning to write up the results so that we can increase community awareness, work with providers to better serve this community, etc., and so I thought I could turn this into an article as well. We will make it transparent to the participants all that we intend do with the results, so would oral consent be appropriate and enough here? Written consent forms might be too formal. We have to do this forum in the next few months because we received a grant for it, so we weren't planning on seeking IRB since there might not be enough time and it's a community project. Do journals usually accept community research like this that does not have IRB approval?

2. With regard to safety and risks, we've consulted professionals who've done this type of forums with other ethnic groups and it's worked, but I do see the risks and want to minimize them. We've invited bilingual mental health professionals to talk about their services, and so we can make referrals then if needed. We do need to start talking about trauma and their experiences though, since it might be a cause of this internal distrust.

Are there other ethical concerns? Many thanks!

 

[cara susanna]

I'd be concerned that these discussions could be triggering or potentially even worsen symptoms.