About the work
Community Engaged
Behavioral Health Workforce Building
LGBTQ+ Celebrating
LGBTQ+ Celebrating
Behavioral Health Workforce Building
LGBTQ+ Celebrating
Behavioral Health Workforce Building
Behavioral Health Workforce Building
Behavioral Health Workforce Building
Current LGBTQ Projects
LGBTQ Youth Go to Family Therapy
Family acceptance and support is suicide prevention and seeds of health and hope for LGBTQ youth. Through a community-engaged project, we sought to bring evidence-based family therapy practice to Missouri for equipping mental health professionals to engage the families of LGBTQ adolescents to improve acceptance and support. This project is funded by Missouri Foundation for Health. A research report can be found here.
A new, public resource guide for families and those who work with families with LGBTQ Youth to promote seeking LGBTQ-affirming family therapy:
LGBTQ YOUTH GO TO FAMILY THERAPY: Stories of Opening Up, Listening to Feelings, and Taking On Ghosts
Recording of June 2023 Webinar Launch of the Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2wcvNgHAc&t=8s
Growing Up in Religious Families: Health, Partnering, and Exposure to Change Efforts
Families and religion impact the health, partnering practices, and risk of exposure to sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts. This is a multifaceted project began in 2015 aimed at using both qualitative interviews and national surveys for understanding the experiences of LGBTQ adults who grew up in religious families. Publications are available for reporting on the study findings:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jmft.12323
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jmft.12442
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2020.1804255
Current Clinical education Projects
Transgender Patient Experiences in Healthcare
Community-engaged scholarship with the St. Louis transgender community through the Transgender Health Collaborative @ SLU is producing interprofessional scholarship and innovations in clinical education.
Educator resource: Advancing Inclusion of Transgender and Gender Diverse Identities in Clinical Education Toolkit
Current Behavioral Health Workforce Projects
Readiness of MFT Graduates to Work Effectively with Youth from Vulnerable Communities
In the St. Louis metropolitan area, the demographics suggest a large and growing youth population vulnerable to poor behavioral health. Early intervention and prevention efforts by mental health professionals trained to address and strengthen family relationships are a key element to an effective behavioral health workforce for addressing the needs of youth and their families in the region.
At Saint Louis University we created the Integrated Behavioral Health Fellowship for funding marriage and family therapy masters students, clinical psychology doctoral students, social work masters students, and psychiatry residents in a year long internship and experiential educational fellowship.
This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Health Resources and Services Administration through a Behavioral Health Workforce Development grant. Publications are available for reporting on the study findings:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01926187.2021.1958270