Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity Webinar Series: Understanding Stigma and Discrimination as Drivers of Mental Health Disparities for Diverse, Rural, LGBTQ+ Communities

Additional upcoming webinars

• Cultural Strengths as Protection: Multimodal Findings Using a Community-Engaged Process: Sept. 11, 2024, 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET
• ODWD/ORWH Roundtable Discussion on Maternal Mental Health Research: Sept. 16, 2024, 12:00–4:00 p.m. ET
• Mechanisms of Risk and Resilience for Mental Health in Individuals of Mexican Origin: Sept. 23, 2024, 1:00–3:00 p.m. ET

Overview

This webinar will present the goals and procedures of the Rural Engagement and Approaches For LGBTQ+ Mental Health (REALM)  study, which is developing a longitudinal cohort of diverse LGBTQ+ adults residing in rural and small metropolitan communities across the United States.

Employing a minority stress framework, REALM aims to determine the following: whether types of stigma, discrimination, and traumatic experiences vary across LGBTQ+ groups; how these exposures are associated with increased prevalence and incidence of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts; and if and how proximal minority stress-related factors mediate and/or moderate these associations. Further, building on these findings, REALM will compare the relative acceptability of various technology-delivered intervention components for depression and suicide prevention for diverse rural LGBTQ+ communities.

Challenges with online recruitment and enrollment and creative solutions will be shared, in addition to lessons learned in how to ensure participant safety. The webinar will end with a description of the cohort to date and share preliminary baseline findings related to study aims.

About the speakers

Sarah M. Murray, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.

Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of Mental Health

Sarah M. Murray (she/her) is a psychiatric epidemiologist and assistant professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at John Hopkins University. Her primary research interest is using mixed methods to understand the multifaceted relationship between violence, stigma, and common mental disorders to inform the development of effective strategies to promote the mental health and psychosocial well-being of individuals experiencing marginalization and/or living in situations of complex adversity in high-, middle- and low-income countries. Much of her research focuses on better understanding and measuring experiences of stigma among sexual and gender minority adults. As principal investigator of the REALM study, Dr, Murray seeks to better understand how these experiences may drive mental health disparities and what strengths-based and protective factors may contribute to positive mental health outcomes to inform intervention development.

Kirsten Siebach, M.S.W.

NIMH Global Mental Health T32 Doctoral Fellow
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of International Health

Kirsten Siebach (she/they) is a third year doctoral student in the International Health Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Kirsten’s research interests lie in the impact of the structural environment, including policies, laws, social attitudes, and norms, on mental health and psychosocial well-being, specifically among the LGBTQ+ community. Kirsten’s dissertation work will examine how structural stigma impacts LGBTQ+ adults living in the rural United States. Kirsten has a master’s degree in social work from the Boston College School of Social Work. She works with Mariah Valentine and clinician Gina Baily Herring to implement the mental health safety protocol for the REALM study.

Mariah Valentine-Graves, M.P.H.

Public Health Program Associate Emory University Rollins School of Public Health
Program, Research, Innovation in Sexual Minority Health (PRISM)

Mariah Valentine-Graves (she/her) received her bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 2013, followed by her Master of Public Health in behavioral science and health education from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 2016. During her time at UCSD, she was involved in social justice work as an intern with both the UCSD LGBT Resource Center and the UCSD Women’s Center. During her time at Emory University, Mariah worked for two years as a graduate research assistant for the Women’s Interagency HIV Study at the Grady Infectious Disease Program. She has worked with PRISM Health as a public health program associate since 2016, coordinating the Engage[men]t Study, a cohort study of men living with HIV in Atlanta. She leads participant-facing activities in the REALM study including recruitment and retention of participants.

About the Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity Webinar Series

The Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity Webinar Series is designed for investigators conducting or interested in conducting research on mental health disparities, women’s mental health, minority mental health, and rural mental health.

Registration

This webinar is free, but registration is required .

Sponsored by

National Institute of Mental Health, Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity

Contact

For questions, please contact Beshaun Davis, Ph.D., Program Director, Mental Health of Minoritized Populations Research, Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity