Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity Webinar Series: Understanding Stigma and Discrimination as Drivers of Mental Health Disparities for Diverse, Rural, LGBTQ+ Communities

REALM, which employs a minority stress framework, seeks to determine: whether types of stigma, discrimination, and traumatic experiences vary across LGBTQ+ groups; how these exposures are associated with increased prevalence and incidence of depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts; and whether and how proximal factors related to minority stress mediate or moderate these associations. Additionally, based on these findings, REALM will compare the relative acceptability of various technology-delivered intervention components for depression and suicide prevention in diverse rural LGBTQ+ communities.

Challenges presented by online recruitment and enrollment and creative solutions will be shared, as well as lessons learned on how to ensure participant safety. The webinar will conclude with a description of the cohort to date and preliminary baseline findings related to the study objectives will be shared.

About the speakers

Dr. Sarah M. Murray, MPH

Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of Mental Health

Sarah M. Murray (she/her) is a psychiatric epidemiologist and adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her primary research interest is using mixed methods to understand the multifaceted relationship between violence, stigma, and common mental disorders in order to inform the development of effective strategies to promote the mental health and psychosocial well-being of people experiencing marginalization or living with complex adversity in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. Much of her research focuses on better understanding and measuring experiences of stigma among sexual and gender minority adults. As principal investigator of the REALM study, Dr. Murray seeks to better understand how these experiences may drive mental health disparities and what strengths-based and protective factors may contribute to positive mental health outcomes in order to inform the development of interventions.

Kirsten Siebach, Master of Social Work

NIMH T32 PhD Fellow in Global Mental Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of International Health

Kirsten Siebach (she/they) is a third-year PhD student in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Kirsten’s research interests focus on the impact of the structural environment, including policies, laws, societal attitudes, and norms, on mental health and psychosocial well-being, specifically among the LGBTQ+ community. Kirsten’s dissertation work will examine how structural stigma impacts LGBTQ+ adults living in rural areas of the United States. Kirsten holds a Master of Social Work from Boston College School of Social Work. She is working with Mariah Valentine and clinician Gina Baily Herring to implement the mental health safety protocol for the REALM study.

Mariah Valentine-Graves, MPH

Emory University Public Health Program Associate, Rollins School of Public Health
Program for Research and Innovation in Sexual Minority Health (PRISM)

Mariah Valentine-Graves (she/her) received her BA in history and political science from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 2013, followed by her Master of Public Health in behavioral sciences and health education from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in 2016. During her time at UCSD, she was involved in social justice work as an intern at both the UCSD LGBT Resource Center and the UCSD Women’s Center. During her time at Emory University, Mariah worked for two years as a graduate research assistant for the Interagency Study of HIV in Women at Grady’s Infectious Diseases Program. She has worked with PRISM Health as a public health program associate since 2016, coordinating the Engage program.[men]t-Study, a cohort study of men living with HIV in Atlanta. Leads participant-facing activities for the REALM study, including participant recruitment and retention.

About the Disparities Research Office and the Workplace Diversity Webinar Series

The Office of Workforce Disparities and Diversity Research webinar series is designed for researchers who are conducting or interested in conducting research on mental health disparities, women’s mental health, minority mental health, and rural mental health.

Record

This webinar is free, but Registration is required .