Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Interpersonal Violence Within Marginalized Communities: Toward a New Prevention Paradigm.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reports of domestic violence across the United States increased from 21% to 35%. Stay-at-home orders, designed to protect the public against the spread of COVID-19, along with heightened societal stressors as a result of the global pandemic, inadvertently increased rates of illicit drug and alcohol use, job loss, and isolation, resulting in increased stress and nonphysical (e.g., psychological, emotional, economic, technological) abuse that often escalated to physical violence. These processes were exacerbated in marginalized communities. These risks were heightened among Black women and Latinas, who experience high rates of domestic violence, long-standing distrust in law enforcement, and compromised self-reporting or anonymous reporting of abuse. We make recommendations for training key stakeholders (e.g., law enforcement, mental health clinicians, and public health care professionals) to facilitate the safety and well-being of domestic violence survivors and to better manage prevention or intervention efforts targeted at domestic violence. We make public health policy suggestions for individuals, communities, and governing structures. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(S2):S149-S156. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307289).

Unmet need for mental health services utilization among under-resourced Black and Latinx adults.

INTRODUCTION: Substantial unmet need for mental health services (MHS) exists in the United States, with pronounced disparities among people of color. Research highlights the need to identify facilitators and barriers to MHS utilization among Black and Latinx individuals to better promote overall health. We tested an expanded model of MHS use based on Andersen's (1995) conceptual framework of health care utilization. Associations were examined between sociodemographic variables, trauma and adversity burden, living with HIV, and unmet need for MHS in a community sample of underresourced Black and Latinx individuals. Barriers to MHS utilization are described. METHODS: Five-hundred participants completed the UCLA Life Adversities Screener (LADS), sociodemographic measures, and items assessing need for and barriers to MHS. RESULTS: 228 (46%) participants reported a need for MHS; of these, 115 (51%) reported receiving MHS. A binomial logistic regression model estimated the relative contribution of the LADS on need for MHS. Severity of LADS, younger age, and living with HIV predicted unmet need for MHS. Barriers to MHS included financial and time constraints and health system-related issues. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests revealed differences in mental health symptoms by MHS need. DISCUSSION: The unmet need for MHS in this sample of Black and Latinx individuals highlights the importance of addressing the systemic roots of trauma and adversity burden, and eliminating structural barriers to treatment to reduce existing health and mental health inequities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).