# Patient Navigators for Children's Community Mental Health Services in High Poverty Urban Communities

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2021 · $766,957

## Abstract

Project Summary
The purpose of this grant is to study a model of mental health navigation for African American
and Latinx children in high poverty urban communities focused on reducing key parental
attitudinal barriers to care. Reducing persistent racial and ethnic disparities in children’s mental
health is a national priority and patient navigation is a highly promising approach that is rarely
used in children’s mental health services. The study will examine the effectiveness of two types
of navigators: paraprofessionals (PP) who have strong community knowledge, and case
managers (CM) who are formally trained. The study will examine specific mechanisms of
navigator effectiveness in children’s mental health and compare the two types of navigators to
provide a rigorous test of the proposed mechanisms. The knowledge gained from this
application may be important to reducing disparities and employing the workforce best suited to
navigation in the community mental health system. Two community boards, one focused on
identifying factors important to supporting navigators at the agencies, and the other focused on
implications for state and federal policy, will meet annually with the goal of identifying key
findings with the potential to influence local, state, and national priorities for children’s mental
health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10208149
- **Project number:** 1R01MH123424-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Marc Steven Atkins
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $766,957
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-12 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10208149

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10208149, Patient Navigators for Children's Community Mental Health Services in High Poverty Urban Communities (1R01MH123424-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10208149. Licensed CC0.

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