Announcements
NIH Loan Repayment Program - Nov 15 Application Deadline
The 2011 application cycle for the National Institutes of Health's LoanRepayment Programs is now open, and applications can be found online at www.lrp.nih.gov. The LRPs repay the outstanding student loans of researcherswho are or will be conducting nonprofit biomedical or behavioral research,and opportunities are available in five research areas: clinical,pediatric, health disparities, contraception and infertility and clinicalresearch for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Applicationswill be accepted until 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on November 15, 2010.
BENEFITS:
New LRP contracts are awarded for a two-year period and repay up to$35,000 of qualified educational debt annually. Tax offsets also are providedas an additional benefit. Participants may apply for competitive renewals,which are issued for one or two years. Undergraduate, graduate, medicalschool, and other health professional school loans qualify for repayment. AnNIH grant or other NIH funding is not required to apply for or participate inthe LRPs.
ELIGIBILITY:
Applicants must possess a doctoral-level degree (with the exception of the contraception and infertility research LRP); be a U.S.citizen, national or permanent resident; devote 20 hours or more per week toconducting qualified research funded by a domestic nonprofit, university orgovernment entity; and have qualified educational loan debt equal to orexceeding 20 percent of their institutional base salary.
AWARDS:
Each year, nearly 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in their careers through the extramural LRPs. Twenty-six percent of awards are made to individuals within one to five years of receiving their doctoral degree. More than 75 percent of awards go toindividuals within 10 years of receiving their doctoral degree. Approximately40 percent of new applications and 70 percent of renewal applications arefunded.
For guidance on the application process and NIH Institute and Center (IC) research priorities, potential applicants should review Tips for Completing a Competitive Application at http://www.lrp.nih.gov/pdf/0310_1_application_tips.pdf and contact an IC LRP liaison. The list of ICs and their liaisons can be found at http://www.lrp.nih.gov/contact_us/contact_list.aspx
QUESTIONS?
Visit the LRP website at www.lrp.nih.gov for more information and to access the online application. For additional assistance, call or e-mail the LRP Information Center at (866) 849-4047 or lrp@nih.gov. Also, receive application cycle updates through Twitter @NIH_LRP or www.twitter.com/NIH_LRP.
Agency Begins Radio Programs in Spanish
HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality introduces “Healthcare 411 en Espanol,” a news series providing Spanish speakers with health and healthcare information. Each month, Spanish language radio stations nationwide will receive two 60-second audio reports that include an interview with a Spanish speaking AHRQ physician. In addition, AHRQ is working with health departments, hospitals, and community and migrant health centers to get the audio segments out to their constituencies through websites or by lay health aides, many of whom work in community health centers. According to AHRQ’s 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report, Hispanics are 20% more likely to receive poor healthcare than non-Hispanic whites, and the problem is especially acute among Hispanics who speak little or no English.
Info: To listen to the Healthcare 411 audio segments in Spanish, visit www.healthcare411.ahrq.gov
Low-income Latinos who have depression but stigmatize mental illness are less likely to take medications, keep scheduled appointments and control their illness
Low-income Latinos who have depression but stigmatize mental illness are less likely to take medications, keep scheduled appointments and control their illness, a U.S. study has found. Researchers interviewed 200 poor, Spanish-speaking Latinos in Los Angeles who all showed signs of depression in an initial screening. Further screening found that 54 of the patients had mild to severe depression.
Based on responses to questions, the researchers determined that 51 percent of the patients stigmatized mental illness. These patients were 22 percent less likely to be taking depression medication, 21 percent less likely to be able to control their depression, and 44 percent more likely to have missed scheduled mental health appointments compared to other patients. (Health Day News, 3/31/10) http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=637534
Stigma Keeps Some Latinos from Depression Treatment
A new study published in General Hospital Psychiatry provides evidence that in the Latino community, members who stigmatize mental illness are less likely to seek and comply with mental health treatment. The study screened 200 Latino patients for depression and then, using a stigma checklist, assessed patients to determine whether or not they stigmatize mental illness. It was found that patients that stigmatize mental illness were less likely to disclose their depression diagnosis to their family and friends, less likely to be taking depression medication, and more likely to have missed scheduled appointment visits.According to lead researcher William Vega of the University of Southern California, the study may point to new approaches to treating individuals with high levels of stigma. The stigma checklist presented for treating Spanish-speaking Latino patients in primary care may be used to assess depressed patients for stigma to help inform clinical management of patients. For more information click here.
Seeking Minority Behavioral and Social Science Volunteers
Washington, DC Metropolitan Area
The American Psychological Association (APA) Behavioral and Social Science Volunteer (BSSV) Program is a national HIV prevention technical capacity-building assistance (CBA) program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The BSSV Program, operated through the APA Office on AIDS, has established a national network of psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists and public health experts that offers free CBA to community-based organizations (CBOs). The BSSV Program has trained and mobilized its network of behavioral and social science volunteers (BSSVs) to assist HIV prevention planners and implementers who are attempting to provide state-of-the-science HIV prevention in their communities.
The areas of technical assistance areas provided by BSSVs include:
· Designing community needs assessment instruments and methodologies
· Using behavioral and social theory to guide intervention development
· Conducting formative research to inform intervention design
· Adapting and tailoring proven interventions to new settings and populations
· Developing and implementing effective evaluation strategies
Prospective volunteers should possess the following criteria:
master's or doctoral level degree in behavioral or social science;
minimum of 5 years experience in HIV prevention;
member of or extensive experience with a minority ethic/racial group;
experience with/knowledge of HIV prevention science and its application in the community; and
personal commitment to HIV prevention and a desire to contribute to their communities in a meaningful way.
Volunteers of the BSSV Program will receive the following benefits:
training in state of the art HIV prevention science
training in delivering effective capacity-building assistance to CBOs, involved with the front lines of HIV prevention;
opportunities to learn from and network with national experts;
opportunities to help facilitate and apply knowledge in community settings that are practical, useful and time efficient; and
be a part of an activist group of social scientists who are committed to improving the health of communities disproportionately affected by HIV.
We currently have a request from a small community-based organization in the Washington , D.C. area who is seeking assistance packaging a home-grown community level intervention. They have done in-house evaluation of the intervention. The organization states it is "looking for a Ph.D. level volunteer to assist us in the process of packaging our CHAMPS program as a possible community-level ". We have an IMMEDIATE need for BSSVs.
Please pass this message onto others who might be interested in serving as a professional volunteer for APA’s BSSV Program. For more information, please contact Sharon Asonganyi, BSSV Capacity Building Coordinator - (202) 336-6164/ sasonganyi@apa.org.
APA works to eliminate disparities as the nation looks to reform its health-care system
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) has developed a dynamic and interactive Spanish-language Web site
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