Our Projects

Development of a decision support tool for culturally adapting mental health treatment to improve outcomes for Latine youths

PI: Park

Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (2025-2028)

In the U.S., Latine youth experience disproportionately high rates of unmet mental health needs - in part due to the fallacy that EBTs are universally applicable and limited practice guidelines on tailoring EBTs to fit clients’ backgrounds and experiences. This planning grant (R34MH140927) seeks to develop and pilot a novel tool to help clinicians make personalized cultural adaptation decisions. We will first co-create a novel decision-support tool - the Culturally Responsive Assessment, Formulation, and Treatment Tool (CRAFTT) - with clinicians and Latine families. Next, we will refine CRAFTT through usability testing with clinicians. We will then evaluate the feasibility of the approach intended to be used in a future large-scale randomized effectiveness trial testing the effect of CRAFTT on Latine youth psychopathology and functioning. Completion of this project will result in the first decision support tool for helping clinicians personalize EBTs for Latine youths and families.

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Developing and examining a Coordinated Knowledge System for improving the use of research evidence in clinical decisions around cultural adaptation

PI: Park

Funded by the William T. Grant Foundation (2025-2029)

Most evidence-based treatments fail to reflect the values and experiences of Latine youth, leaving them at greater risk of receiving care that is ineffective and/or culturally insensitive. Although there is a foundational and growing body of research on culturally adapted treatments for Latine youth, this evidence is not organized in a way that facilitates its application in clinical practice. The Promoting the Use of Evidence to Navigate Therapy Equitably (PUENTE) study seeks to develop a suite of tools, or coordinated knowledge system (CKS), that re-organizes this research evidence to help supervisors and clinicians provide effective and culturally responsive mental health treatment to Latine youth and families. We will first collaborate with supervisors, clinicians, and Latine families to co-create the knowledge and tools that will be incorporated into the CKS. Next, we will test the usability of tools like decision flowcharts and worksheets that can aid supervisors and clinicians in culturally adapting treatment for Latine youth and refine the CKS. We will then examine how supervisors and clinicians use a refined version of this CKS in working with Latine youth. Findings from the PUENTE study will have direct implications for practice and will lay the groundwork for a future large-scale study testing the effectiveness of the CKS in improving mental health outcomes for Latine youth.

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Selected Past Projects

  • PI: Park

    Funded by the Varda Shoham Clinical Science Training Initiative from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology

    This project aimed to solicit and disseminate expert guidance on culturally adapting evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for ethnic-racial minoritized clients. As part of the project, clinical psychology doctoral students conducted interviews with 12 clinical scientists about key risk and resilience factors relevant to Latine, Black, and Asian clients, as well as strategies for adapting EBTs to address these factors. The full interview series is available here.

    Presentations:

    • Kondo, E., Dunn, N., Canico, J., Velez, C.V., Molina, N., Kitagawa, Y., & Park, A.L. (accepted for November 2025). Cultural Adaptation Interview Series: Improving Trainee Readiness for Culturally Responsive Care [Blitz poster presentation]. Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology Student Poster Awards Session at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 59th Annual Convention.

    • Park, A.L., Kondo, E., Molina, N., Velez, C.V., Canico, J., Dunn, N., & Kitagawa, Y (July 2025). Universal and group-specific cultural adaptations to mental health treatments [Poster presentation]. 8th Biennial American Psychological Association Division 45 Research Conference.

    • Velez, C.V., Molina, N., Kondo, E., Canico, J., Dunn, N., Kitagawa, Y., & Park, A.L. (May 2025). Cultural factors to consider when adapting mental health treatment for racial-ethnic minoritized clients [Oral presentation]. Oregon Diversity Science Symposium, University of Oregon.

  • PIs: Park, Bunge

    In partnership with a school district in Northern California, we disseminated behavioral parent training techniques to parents and teachers through synchronous psychoeducational workshops, school newsletters, and social media.

    Publications:

    • Baeza-Hernandez, K., Lasecke, M., Herman, A., Kim, J., Lin, J. M., Dosovitsky, G., ... & Park, A. L. (2023). Pilot implementation of psychoeducational workshops on behavior management and stress management for parents and teachers. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 8(4), 459-470. (PDF)

    • Lasecke, M., Baeza‐Hernandez, K., Dosovitsky, G., DeBellis, A., Bettencourt, B., Park, A. L., & Bunge, E. L. (2022). Disseminating online parenting resources in the community during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Lessons learned. Journal of Community Psychology, 50(5), 2443-2457.

    • Schickler, R., Park, A., Benfica, D., Rodriguez, A., Eaton, E., & Bunge, E. (2023). Disseminating online parenting resources through community‐academic partnerships. Journal of Community Psychology, 51(7), 2686-2696. (PDF)

  • PI: Park

    In partnership with one of the largest community mental health and welfare agencies in Southern California, we conducted an assessment of staff needs and recommendations regarding treatment engagement of culturally diverse families, interpretation and translation services, the shifting sociopolitical landscape, and cultural competence training.

    Publications:

    • Park, A. L., Boustani, M. M., Saifan, D., Gellatly, R., Letamendi, A., Stanick, C., Regan, J., Perez, G., Manners, D., Reding, M. E. J., & Chorpita, B. F. (2020). Community mental health professionals’ perceptions about engaging underserved populations. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 47(3), 366–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-019-00994-3

    • Park, A. L., Torres Sanchez, A., Saifan, D., Velez, C. V., Letamendi, A., Stanick, C., Regan, J., Manners, D., & Chorpita, B. F. (2024). What does diversity mean to you? Perspectives from community mental health staff. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2024.2400924

    • Torres Sanchez, A., Park, A. L., Chu, W., Letamendi, A., Stanick, C., Regan, J., Perez, G., Manners, D., Oh, G., & Chorpita, B. F. (2022). Supporting the mental health needs of underserved communities: A qualitative study of barriers to accessing community resources. Journal of Community Psychology, 50(1), 541–552. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22633 (PDF)