By: Mira Garin
Assistant Professor and SDSU/UCSD JDP in Public Health Co-Director Dr. Shira Goldenberg was recently awarded $615,668 for the project “Adapting a novel mental health prevention intervention for migrant mothers with young children in a humanitarian setting” via an Exploratory Research Grant (R34) from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Jointly led by Dr. Ietza Bojorquez at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) and in partnership with both the legal and humanitarian support group Al Otro Lado and the human rights group Centro 32 (FBT), this project aims to pilot-test a multi-component mental health prevention intervention tailored to the specific needs of migrant mothers with young children who wait in Tijuana, Mexico while en route to their final destination.
Rates of global migration have reached a record-high with displacement often driven by desires to secure stable economic opportunities and/or attempts to flee violence, political conflict, or negative impacts of climate change. This global trend has been exacerbated by migration policies that have required hundreds of thousands of people to prolong their time in transit at the U.S.-Mexico border under what are often unsafe conditions. Although migrant women who travel with their children are at particularly high risk of developing depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders, few evidence-based interventions have been tailored to address their unique needs. Given both this existing humanitarian crisis and the continued increase in the number of women traveling with children who find themselves stuck at the edge of the busiest international land border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, identifying effective and scalable mental health interventions is pressing.
“Migrant mothers seeking asylum face a multitude of challenges and stressors, and [they] don’t receive nearly enough support for themselves or their families during this extremely traumatic and stressful time in their lives,” Dr. Goldenberg explained. “Our community partners and participants flagged the need for more parenting supports and for mental health prevention programs as crucial unmet needs.” To address these gaps, Drs. Goldenberg and Bojorquez spearhead a pilot study that adapts the Spanish language translation of the trauma-informed group intervention ‘Mom Power’ to suit the needs of migrant mothers with children five years old and younger. Using a randomized control trial, the researchers will provide 50 individuals in the intervention group with both group and individual sessions on parenting, social support, resiliency, and linkage to resources for basic needs such as food and shelter; the 50 individuals in the control group will receive both standard of care programming along with written intervention materials during the course of the study and will participate in the intervention after the completion of the 6-month study. The impact of the intervention will be measured via entrance and exit surveys as well as 3-month and 6-month follow-up surveys of all 100 participants.
“We are incredibly fortunate to be working with an amazing team of dedicated and passionate collaborators at Al Otro Lado, with whom we have been working now for over two years,” Dr. Goldenberg reflected. “We also have an incredibly talented and hardworking team of postdocs, doctoral students, and master’s students who have been integral to this project and our research to support the health and wellbeing of migrant women and communities here in the border region.”
