Background Despite the growing trend of integrating primary care and mental health services, little research has documented how consumers with severe mental illnesses manage comorbid conditions or view integrated services. Objectives We sought to better understand how consumers perceive and manage both mental and physical health conditions and their views of integrated services. Methods We conducted semi-structured interviews with consumers receiving primary care services integrated in a community mental health setting. Results Consumers described a range of strategies to deal with physical health conditions and generally viewed mental and physical health conditions as impacting one another. Consumers viewed integration of primary care and mental health services favorably, specifically its convenience, friendliness and knowledge of providers, and collaboration between providers. Conclusions Although integration was viewed positively, consumers with SMI may need a myriad of strategies and supports to both initiate and sustain lifestyle changes that address common physical health problems.

People often believe Black individuals experience less social pain and require less social support to cope with distress than White individuals (e.g., Deska, Kunstman, Lloyd, et al., 2020). However, researchers have not tested whether biases in third-person pain judgments translate to first-person experiences with social pain minimization. For example, do Black individuals feel their social pain is underrecognized to a greater extent than White individuals? The current work tested whether Black individuals felt their social pain was minimized more than White individuals and if the experience of social pain minimization was related to worse mental health and greater life stress. Data from two cross-sectional, correlational studies provide initial support for these predictions ( Ntotal = 1,501). Black participants felt their social pain was minimized more than White participants and this race difference in social pain minimization was associated with worse mental health and greater life stress. These results suggest that Black individuals feel their pain is underrecognized and this experience of social pain minimization is related to worse mental health outcomes.

Background: Family health history is a strong risk factor for many chronic diseases. Ethnic minorities have been found to have a low awareness of their family health history (FHH), which may pose a contributing factor to health disparities. Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods social network analysis study was to identify structural and contextual patterns in African American adults' FHH knowledge based on interpersonal communication exchanges with their family members. Methods: African American adults completed individually administered family network interviews. Participants' 3-generation family pedigree served as a visual aid to guide their interview. Our primary outcome of interest for this analysis was whether a family member was reported as someone who talks to the participant about their own (i.e., the family member's) health, which we refer to as a "personal health informant." To contextualize quantitative findings, participants were asked to describe how they learned about the health history of the relatives they identified during their interview. Results: Participants (n=37) reported an average family network size of 29.4 relatives (SD = 15.5; Range = 10-67). Each participant, on average, named 17% of their familial network as personal health informants. Multivariate regression results showed that participants __________ Study funding was provided by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute Project Development Teams (PDT) pilot grants (Grant#UL1TR001108) and the Walther Cancer Foundation, Inc. (Grant # 4479705). We would also like to thank Dr. James Moody for guidance on this manuscript as a mentor to Dr. Hood in the Duke Social Networks and Health Training Program (NIH grant R25HD079352).were more likely to name an alter as a personal health informant if the alter was female (OR = 2.14, p = 0.0519), from the maternal side of the participant's family (OR = 1.12, p = 0.0006), had one or more chronic health conditions (OR = 2.41, p = 0.0041), was someone who has discussions with the participant about the participant's health (OR = 16.28, p < 0.0001), was a source of family health information (OR = 3.46, p = 0.0072), and was someone whose health the participant helps to monitor or track (OR = 5.93, p = 0.0002). Complementary qualitative findings indicate that FHH knowledge is facilitated by open, direct communication among relatives. Personal health informants were described as disclosing information for the purposes of informing others for preventive purposes and for gaining social support. Participants also learned about FHH via other methods, including direct observation, during caretaking, and following a relative's death. Conclusions: Communication and disclosure practices is an important determinant of African Americans' FHH knowledge. More culturally and contextually meaningful public health efforts are needed to promote family health history sharing, especially regarding paternal family health history, siblings, and extended relatives.

African Americans disproportionately experience psychological distress, such as feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness and are disproportionately exposed to risk factors associated with mental illness, such as racial discrimination, violence and poverty. To effectively address African Americans' mental health needs, it is imperative to identify who African Americans turn to when they experience stressors. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which emotional support is provided within African Americans' social networks and determine the characteristics of social network members who African Americans rely upon for emotional support. Results indicate that African Americans rely on social network members for spiritual and physical health support more so than emotional support. Among both male and female participants, social network members were significantly more likely to be relied upon for emotional support if they were a non-familial network contact, had a close relationship to the participant, and if they also were someone the participant spoke to about his or her physical health. Findings have implications for the development of culturally-sensitive strategies for increasing emotional support provision within African Americans' social networks.