Patricia Areán, Ph.D. 

Dr. Patricia Areán is a clinical researcher and former professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Currently, she is the Director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). With over 30 years of experience, Dr. Areán has focused her career on increasing access to mental health services for underserved communities. She has led multiple research initiatives, including the UW Alacrity Center, which aims to redesign psychosocial interventions for underserved populations, and the Creative Lab, which explores digital mental health solutions using mobile technology. 

In this insightful conversation, Dr. Areán shares how her early experiences in public hospitals and community mental health centers shaped her passion for working with underserved communities. She discusses her journey of developing partnerships with community organizations and navigating the challenges of research in marginalized populations. Dr. Areán also delves into her groundbreaking work in integrating technology with mental health services and how she has managed to conduct large-scale studies in underserved communities using innovative digital tools. This episode provides valuable lessons for researchers interested in social justice, technology, and community-based research. 

In this episode you will learn:

  • How Dr. Areán built her connections with underserved communities and organizations that serve those communities.
  • How to partner with people in community organizations to do research with both high internal and external validity .
  • How to build relationships with the communities and people you want to work with, and actively listening to their stories and experiences.
  • How to have open and honest discussions with project managers.

Tips from the episode:

On making connections with communities…

  • Be humble- you may be an expert in your field, but you are not an expert to someone’s unique experience.
  • Pay attention to the interests and the needs of the people that you are interacting with.
  • Building trust with community leaders can but is not promised to earn the trust of members within the community.
  • Cold calls to community leaders can work if you can’t get a warm handoff.
  • Don’t give up when turned away, remember your purpose, stay humble, respectful, and resilient.

Links:

Article on Dr. Patricia Arean’s Position at the National Institute of Mental Health 

UW ALACRITY Center 

  • Redesigning psychosocial interventions to cater clinicians that work with underserved communities as well as the individuals within these communities 

The CREATIV Lab

Dr. Jeanne Mirandahttps://ph.ucla.edu/faculty/miranda

Research Matters Podcast is hosted by Jason Luoma, who can be found on Twitter @jasonluoma or Facebook at: facebook.com/jasonluomaphd. You download the podcast through iTunesStitcher, or Spotify. Reach out with suggestions, questions, or comments to researchmatterspod@gmail.com