Dr. Wendy Chu is a postdoctoral fellow in the Mood, Anxiety, ADHD Collaborative Care for Equity (MAACC-E) Program at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina, after completing her predoctoral clinical internship at the University of Illinois Chicago Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Chu’s research aims to improve the cultural responsiveness of mental health services for marginalized youth and families. She is deeply committed to partnering with youth, families, and service systems to co-create solutions. To this end, Dr. Chu seeks to develop, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies to reduce cultural and structural barriers to care that disproportionately impact marginalized youth and families.
Project Summary:
Despite the availability of hundreds of evidence-based treatments, racially marginalized youth and families often end treatment prematurely—largely due to unaddressed cultural and structural engagement barriers (CSEBs), such as mental health stigma, therapist cultural misunderstandings, and logistical challenges. Research suggests that providers often struggle to identify CSEBs, while youth and caregivers rarely disclose them.
For her AIM Clinical Science Fellowship project, Dr. Chu will co-develop an implementation system with youth co-researchers to address CSEBs impacting racially marginalized youth and caregivers receiving care at federally qualified health centers. This system will include a therapist training on evidence-based strategies to address CSEBs, as well as a brief, user-friendly tool for youth and caregivers to discuss these barriers with their therapists during the very first session. By co-creating a culturally responsive system in a real-world context, Dr. Chu aims to improve the early identification and intervention of CSEBs so that racially marginalized youth and families can fully benefit from mental health services.
“I am honored to receive an AIM Clinical Science Fellow grant. Through this project, I’m excited to partner with AIM youth co-researchers to develop a scalable solution that addresses cultural and structural barriers to mental health service engagement for racially marginalized youth and families.” – Wendy Chu
