Faculty Directory

Carolina Vélez-Grau

Assistant Professor

Photo of Carolina Vélez-Grau

Carolina Vélez-Grau

Contact

Email: carolina.velez-grau@bc.edu

Education

  • B.S., Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Facultad de Psicología
  • M.S., Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Facultad de Psicología
  • M.S.W., Columbia University
  • Ph.D., Columbia University

Courses

Human Behavior and the Social Environment

Research Interests

Adolescent mental health, adolescent suicide, mental health services, suicide prevention, social connectedness, task-sharing of mental health, ethnocultural minorized youth, and Latinx communities. 

Expertise

  • Mental Health
  • Latinx Communities
  • Clinical Practice
CV or Resume

A task-shifting approach to suicide prevention among Latinx youth

Project summary

This project, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (K23 MH137405), seeks to examine a task-shifting approach to suicide prevention among Latinx youth. Task-shifting is the distribution of tasks from specialized providers in clinical settings to lay workers in schools and other community-based settings. By using task-shifting and leveraging partnerships with youth community centers in the Boston area, we seek to move suicide prevention to the communities where youth are and reduce disparities in care. 

The problem

In 2021, 46 percent of Latinx youth in the United States felt so sad or hopeless that they stopped doing their usual activities, 30 percent reported poor mental health, and 22 percent reported suicide ideation. Suicide ideation is a risk factor for suicide attempts and death by suicide. Key risk factors for suicide ideation among Latinx youth include depression symptoms, low sense of belongingness, and feeling like a burden to others. Structural factors, such as low access to care, even when they report suicide behaviors, place them at high risk. Latinx youth are often uninsured and mistrust healthcare providers. Given that one in four youth younger than age 18 in the United States is Latinx, increasing access to care before suicide behaviors onset in this population will make a public health impact. 

The solution 

Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A; 12-16 sessions), an effective evidence-based intervention tested with Latinx youth, improves interpersonal functioning and, in turn, reduces depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Brief IPT-A (BIPT-A; 6-8 sessions) integrated into community settings and delivered by lay providers (i.e., task-shifting) offers an opportunity to be used as an upstream suicide approach (before suicide behaviors onset) and close the Latinx youth mental health access gap. However, research is needed to examine the feasibility and acceptability of BIPT-A task-shifted to youth community centers where Latinx youth learn and play. 

In summary, this project addresses NIMH's strategic plan by investigating the adaptation and implementation of an evidence-based mental health intervention in real-world settings with ethnic minoritized populations. The intervention has the potential to be used as a preventive approach to suicide, build community capacity, and increase mental health equity.

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