In the United States, education has historically been utilized as a vehicle of cultural assimilation. What that looks like, and its goals, has varied across time and region. Initially starting as the dominant white, anglo-saxon, protestant culture violently and brutally oppressing and subsuming the cultures of all others (including Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and immigrants of a variety of backgrounds), and in current times moving towards a co-existence state in which multiculturalism and cultural pluralism is championed. It has yet to be determined as to whether the education system has caught up to societal shifts and what it means in terms of racially and culturally non-dominant student experiences. The primary question is how has assimilation-based educational practices impacted culturally non-dominant students in K-12 public schools? I conducted a qualitative synthesis across federated search databases evaluating common themes of resiliency and success, risk factors and failures, and avenues of potential change. I included qualitative peer-reviewed studies from the year 2000 or later, that focused on K-12 public schools in the United States, and that focused on culturally non-dominant students. Preliminary findings include language barriers being insufficiently addressed, culturally insensitive and irrelevant curriculum, lack of acknowledgement on the cultural perception of the value of education within teaching pedagogues, black/white racial paradigms of diversity and achievement gap, insufficient modeling of Americanness that reflects all students and an accurate history of the United States, and gaps with data aggregation and the resulting need for further research. Implications and future directions include key data disaggregation in research and school-based data collection, a reconsideration of what constitutes “standard” curriculum, and teacher education focused on humanistic and equitable principles.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an overwhelming shift to using technology to connect with others. Coinciding with a growing mental health crisis among youth, mental health therapy has been largely moved to digital spaces. Three years later, providers are having to choose if they will provide their services through in person, remote, or hybrid interventions. My initial hypothesis is that there will be access barriers for youth of certain demographics when utilizing digital interventions. I conducted a systematic literature review to look at the effectiveness of the use of digital mental health therapy services among adolescents using PubMed, PsychInfo, and UW Libraries databases. The journals assess barriers and facilitators of digital mental health services for youth. Articles are found through systematic searches using combinations of the MeSH terms ‘digital mental health’, ‘adolescents’, ‘accessibility’ and ‘depression’. The demographics of the adolescents are compared with their preferences for digital therapy. Preliminary results indicate that youth who identify as lower income, rural residents, or BIPOC will face greater barriers to accessing mental healthcare and may benefit from continuing digital therapy. This synthesis of peer reviewed journals will prove to be useful in helping providers move forward with their practice in a way that aligns with their client’s needs.

The mental health of family caregivers who care for elders who have passed is often dismissed by healthcare providers and society because of the age of their family members. When an older adult dies, their death is seen as expected and as the natural ending to having lived their life. However, there is still a tremendous grieving process that family members, friends, and caregivers experience with the death of a loved one. After losing a loved one, family caregivers report experiencing higher rates of depression, anxiety, and ambiguous grief. Additionally, many family caregivers find that medical help decreases drastically after the death, thus creating a sense of isolation. Current studies tend to explore one aspect of the experience of caregiver loss. Furthermore, much of these findings are based on data that is homogeneous in race and social status with an overwhelming majority being white and middle class. No existing studies have attempted to untangle the complexity of emotions that come with family caregiving. This systematic literature review starts to fill these gaps by answering the question: What are the psychological impacts experienced by family caregivers following the loss of an elderly loved one they provided care for? The databases used to identify the articles include PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. Approximately 15 articles have been identified that meet the inclusion criteria. The preliminary findings are themes of support changing before and after death, relationship with caregiving, relationship with family members cared for, psychological adversities (anxiety, depression, and loneliness), and religion as a way to find peace. These findings will help family caregivers see trends in their experience, helping with the loneliness that comes while grieving. It will also be a starting point to show healthcare workers what to look for when determining whether the grieving process is chronic.

Vietnamese Amerasians are children of United States service members and Vietnamese women born during the Vietnam War. Many of these children grow up while experiencing various stressors in Vietnam, due to their biracial and inherently political identities. These challenges place them at a higher risk for developing a mental illness. There is limited research on the mental health challenges of Vietnamese Amerasians. I conducted a systematic literature review to examine the current mental health challenges of Vietnamese Amerasians. I identified nineteen relevant articles through a systematic search of APA PsycINFO, APA PsycArticles, and references of included articles.The inclusion criteria required studies to be conducted within Vietnam and the United States, include at least five Vietnamese Amerasians, and focus on mental health and related outcomes. Included articles are analyzed to find themes in the prevalence of mental health illnesses (such as PTSD, Depression, Suicidality, and Anxiety), mental health utilization, factors contributing to mental health illness, and protective factors. Preliminary findings identify high pre-migration expectations, frequency of thinking of ones’ American father, language barrier, experience of discrimination, witnessing traumatic events, acculturation stress, unaccompanied minor status, having multiple surrogate mothers, being African Amerasian, and family conflict as factors contributing to poor mental health outcomes for Vietnamese Amerasians. Family support has been identified as a protective factor. Due to the unique bi-racial identity of Vietnamese Amerasians, more research is needed to determine the applicability of these findings. In addition to informing future research, these findings aid clinicians in the relevant factors impacting Vietnamese Amerasian mental health.

In this study, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is utilized as a framework to examine the experiences of hospital social workers who care for unhoused patients. Past research suggests that hospital social workers feel unprepared to appropriately support unhoused patients; this study aims to expand upon that research by introducing a type of intervention that supports the care of this population (based on Relational-Cultural Intervention or RCT) as a way of equipping social workers with additional tools to address this perception. Existing literature indicates that RCT can be a meaningful, reparative intervention to help unhoused individuals find affirmation and support through relational re-engagement. Through the provision of information about relational-cultural techniques, as well as advice on how to utilize these techniques, this research seeks to consider hospital social workers’ impressions of RCT’s potential usefulness as well as increase respondents’ perceptions that interventions performed with unhoused patients can offer meaning and value to both the patient and the social worker. Existing research suggests that meaningful relational exchanges have value for increasing an individual’s confidence in others' support and willingness to engage with services, programs, and other individuals, even in the absence of immediate options for accessing housing.