Advancing mental health equity through adapting an evidence-based traumatic stress intervention to address racial...

Racial trauma-the stressful impact or emotional pain that comes from experiencing racism-is associated with risk of anxiety, depression, general psychological distress, and suicidal ideation among Black youth. We adapted and piloted an evidence-based intervention for traumatic stress to address racial trauma among Black youth ages 12-17.

Following the Assessment, Decision, Adaptation, Production, Topical Experts- Integration, Training, & Testing framework, we conducted focus groups, a survey, pretesting of intervention components, and engaged in consultation with topical experts to develop our adapted intervention, Healing through Education Affirmation and Rising Together (HEART). We then evaluated HEART through a mixed-method pilot study with Black youth ages 12-17 (n = 25).

Our pilot study suggested HEART holds promise in reducing discrimination distress, improving racial identity, and improving hope for the future among Black youth. We also observed a nonsignificant trend toward reduced depressive symptoms for HEART participants, suggesting potential benefit worth further study. Findings indicate that HEART is culturally relevant to Black youth and feasible to implement using a task-sharing approach.

As research consistently documents the harm from racial trauma and limited access to mental health supports for Black youth, it is imperative to develop and implement accessible and relevant interventions. This study addressed a gap in existing interventions with an iterative process that centers the experiences of Black youth exposed to racial trauma. The response to the adapted intervention indicates HEART is a promising approach to reduce mental health inequities associated with racial trauma among Black youth.