The Moritz Center for Societal Impact is proud to announce Abena Yirenya-Tawiah as a recipient of the Moritz Center Dissertation Award.
The Moritz Center Dissertation Award supports doctoral students in the School of Social Work pursuing innovative, impact-oriented dissertation research that addresses pressing societal issues. The award reflects the Center’s mission to advance rigorous research that is responsive to community needs, with particular encouragement for projects aligned with behavioral health, housing, and health and technology.
Abena’s dissertation research, “Afrocentric Perspectives on Mental Health Service Use: A Mixed-Methods Study of Mental Health Utilization among West African Immigrants in Texas,” uses a mixed-methods case study design to examine willingness to use mental health services, mental health utilization outcomes, and lived experiences with formal mental health services among West African immigrants in Texas. Guided by the Afrocentric Health Service Utilization Model (ASHUM), her work centers Afrocentric-based factors that shape willingness to use mental health outcomes and mental health service experiences.
By incorporating perspectives from current service users, mental health professionals, and religious and community leaders, Abena’s research aims to generate findings that can inform future empirical studies, intervention, and implementation efforts to better meet the mental health service needs of Black immigrant populations in Texas as well as provide insights for policy .
Dissertation Award funds will support key research activities, including participant recruitment and compensation, interview transcription, and data analysis software.
Please join us in congratulating Abena on this well-deserved recognition!
