Dr. Carol Weitzman, associate professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, received a two-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) grant aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic health care disparities in the care and treatment of depression in local communities.

Altogether, $2 million for the "Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change" program was awarded jointly to investigators at 11 of 178 organizations around the country that submitted proposals.

"We are pleased to join the foundation and its Finding Answers program in working to eliminate disparities in the U.S. health care system," says Weitzman, who is also an associate professor at the Yale Child Study Center. "The funds from this grant will help the Department of Pediatrics at Yale evaluate an intervention for depressed high-risk inner-city mothers to learn whether it is effective in equalizing care for all our patients."

Evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in the care of depression is strong, notes Weitzman, with few minority patients being diagnosed and receiving treatment. This grant seeks to identify depressed mothers of young children by screening for depression during pediatric well-child care.

"There is a significant link between child behavior problems and maternal depression, and there is evidence that when maternal depression is adequately treated, child behavior problems improve," she says.

Weitzman hypothesizes that high-risk mothers may be more open to treatment when it is offered in a trusted setting, such as their pediatrician's office; when mothers believe it will help their children; and when treatment is offered in a non-threatening and easily accessible place such as their primary care provider's office. As part of this project, brief on-site cognitive behavioral therapy will be offered along with psychopharmacologic evaluation.

Dr. Marshall H. Chin, director of the Finding Answers program, says: "There is an urgent need to move beyond documenting the existence of health care disparities and start finding solutions that will eliminate them. With the joint effort of these grantees and the health care community, we will identify innovative, replicable and sustainable approaches to reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care."

The results of Yale's research will help Finding Answers and RWJF understand what works -- or does not work -- to improve health care for minority patients. The information Yale and the other 10 grantees provide to Finding Answers will include obstacles to and solutions for implementing a tested intervention, start-up and maintenance costs for the intervention, and staff training needs.

Finding Answers will evaluate the results and related information and then inform health care stakeholders -- doctors, hospitals and health plans -- about promising interventions that demonstrate potential to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, based at the University of Chicago, is the cornerstone of the RWJF's strategy to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care by 2008. More information is online at www.solvingdisparities.org.

Partners in this project include Dr. Kimberly Yonkers, associate professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale; and Heather Howell and Margaret Briggs-Gowan of the University of Connecticut Department of Psychiatry.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Study reveals more effective approach to curbing HIV spread

DeVane Lectures to ask: Are sustainability and capitalism compatible?

Celebrating the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Former deputy secretary of U.N. to be visiting fellow this spring

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

• Elefteriades is named as Glenn Professor
  
  
• Salem will hold the Lampman Professorship
  
  
• Tsai is designated as Robert Young Professor
  
  
• Udelsman appointed to William Carmalt Chair
  
  

Streamlined office . . . aims to enhance postdoctoral experience

Global Village Shelters to be on exhibit at the Divinity School

Play shows 'humanity behind the statistics' of AIDS epidemic

Beinecke Library exhibit explores impact of world fairs

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS

• Team maps gene for nicotine dependence to chromosome 5
  
  
• Expanded Medicare benefit increased early diagnosis . . .
  
  
• Grant supports work to eliminate disparities in . . .
  
  
• Study: Estrogen curbs appetite in same way as the hormone leptin
  
  
• Research shows impact of racial discrimination in . . .
  
  
• 'Graying' of group health insurance demographic may strain . . .
  
  
• Report: Swedish massage helps osteoarthritis of knee
  
  
• Coca-Prados gets inside-view of pharmaceutical industry at Pfizer
  
  

'Marat/Sade' offers audiences 'a full-scale theatrical assault . . .'

Rudd Center awards Golden Apples for innovative ideas to battle obesity

New exhibit at Jonathan Edwards College features portraits, drawings . . .

Memorial in honor of Ellen Hudson Graham

Conductor to present series on 'Reflections on Bach'

Yale trustee's Vietnam memorial wins award

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes

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