PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Apr-2014

Contact: Kim Irwin kirwin@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2262 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

A team of community leaders and researchers from UCLA and RAND has been awarded the 2014 Joint Team Science Award in recognition of a 10-year effort to conduct community engaged, population-based translational science to improve care for depression in low-income areas.

The Joint Team Science Award, given by the Association for Clinical and Translational Science and the American Federation for Medical Research, was established to acknowledge the growing importance of interdisciplinary teams to translate research discoveries into clinical applications to achieve public health impact. The award will be presented on April 10, 2014, at the association's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The UCLA/RAND and community translational research team included interdisciplinary scientists and area stakeholders from South Los Angeles, downtown L.A. and Hollywood working in partnership, contributing expertise to develop a collaborative approach to science development and implementation, as well as an evidence basis for the added value of community engagement and partnership.

The team included the National Institute for Mental Health (NIHM), the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and 40 other health and advocacy agencies, including Healthy African American Families II, QueenCare Health and Faith Partnership and Behavioral Health Services. More than 100 academic and community leaders, such as ministers and representatives from child welfare agencies, barbershops and beauty salons, food banks and homeless shelters, participated in the project, said principal investigator Dr. Kenneth Wells, a senior scientist at RAND and a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

"It's absolutely wonderful to get an award that recognizes the efforts of so many people. It really does take a village to affect change," said Wells, who also is a professor-in-residence in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. "We showed that with community leaders and scientists working together we can improve mental and physical health and reduce homelessness, as well as provide relief for those suffering from depression."

Participating scientist Dr. Bowen Chung, an assistant professor-in-residence of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and an adjunct scientist at RAND, said the study on depression may be the first ever to show community engagement can provide "measurable added value."

"We were able to show that high quality science and high quality community engagement are not mutually exclusive endeavors," Chung said. "We were also able to show that, when everyone in a community works together to address a health issue like depression, we can learn how to develop new effective and innovative approaches to provide support for people with depression that healthcare systems and doctors could never develop by themselves."

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UCLA/RAND community research team win prestigious translational science award