Senior Faculty
Co-Director
Dr. Brekke’s work focuses on the improvement of community-based services for individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness. Dr. Brekke has continuously pursued methods to improve the lives of the seriously mentally ill and the services they receive. As the Frances G. Larson Professor of Social Work Research at USC, he has focused his research on community-based services for those struggling with schizophrenia, cognitive deficits and other severe mental illnesses. In addition to continuing his work on translational research through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at USC, Brekke is currently engaged in a handful of studies, including one that seeks to explore how cognitive deficits impact the lives of those with schizophrenia. Other work involves developing a peer navigator model—training those with personal experience in the mental health system to guide others with serious mental illness. An avid mentor, Brekke involves doctoral students in many aspects of his research, from community outreach and data analysis to publication and presentation of findings. He views his mentoring role as critical to training the next generation of scholars and sets high standards for their performance.
Dr. Barrio has a national reputation in mental health services research. She brings over twenty years of clinical experience with multicultural populations to her research focus on ethnocultural factors in serious mental illness and the cultural relevance of psychosocial services. She has been continually funded by National Institute of Health since 1998. Dr. Barrio’s research contributions address several aspects of ethnic disparities in health and mental health services for Latino and other underserved and under-researched multicultural populations dealing with SMI and co-morbid conditions. Her work examins whether cultural constructs, specifically sociocentric values, are related to symptom expression in schizophrenia, and also the ethnic disparities in access to services for persons with schizophrenia served in the pubic mental health sector. With her team, she developed a culturally based family intervention for family caregivers of persons with schizophrenia. Dr. Barrio’s record of productive research has been grounded in her knowledge of rich clinical phenomena and is complemented by extensive interdisciplinary collaborations. Her teaching expertise is in the area of advanced direct practice in mental health settings and the assessment and the diagnosis of mental disorders.
Director
Dr. Yamada’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of cultural research methodology and cultural competence. She is especially interested in enhancing the cultural relevance of community mental health services for adults and older adults with severe mental illness. During her research, Dr. Yamada noticed that there were very few Asian clients in her studies and hypothesized that the pronounced cultural stigma associated with mental disorders might be having an effect. Teaming up with a group of doctoral students, she decided to study the community support environment of Asian Americans, particularly spiritual settings. Her current research is focused on developing faith-based services for Asian Americans and other under-represented groups with documented disparities in mental health service use. Dr. Yamada encourages her mentees to evaluate and develop alternative interventions for ethnically diverse communities to decrease stigma and encourage use of mental health services.
Junior faculty
Dr. Henwood is a licensed clinical social worker who has served as an administrator, clinician and researcher for organizations serving adults experiencing homelessness and serious health conditions, including mental illness, physical disease and addiction. He helped start and served as the clinical director for Pathways to Housing, Inc., a Housing First agency in Philadelphia, where he also served as the principal investigator of clinical research. Henwood received a dissertation-training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and is a co-investigator of the five-year, NIMH-funded New York Recovery Study of homeless adults with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse. He is also the lead evaluator of a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Servcies Administration grant to expand Housing First services in the state of Vermont. As an assistant professor at the USC School of Social Work, Henwood continues his ongoing research agenda on the complex service environment for individuals with serious mental illnesses who have experienced homelessness.
Research Associate
Administrative Assistant
Ralfh Viloria
rviloria@usc.edu