Kunmi Sobowale, MD, a first-year resident with the Yale Department of Psychiatry, has been selected for the 2016-17 American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Minority Fellowship Program.
The SAMHSA-funded program provides money for training and research in psychiatry, where minority groups are underrepresented. Fellows receive training opportunities by attending and participating in APA meetings.
Sobowale said his fellowship will help him advance his work on poverty and mental health. He will work with his mentor, Megan Smith, DrPH, MPH, assistant professor of psychiatry and director of the New Haven Mental health Outreach for MotherS (MOMS) Partnership, to integrate financial coaching into mental health services for low-income mothers.
He said the project is in response to a needs assessment of more than 1,200 low-income mothers in the MOMS Partnership that found that provision basic needs was among the biggest challenges women face for their families.
“In response to these needs, we will incorporate financial counseling in existing group cognitive behavioral therapy interventions for women in the MOMS Partnership,” Sobowale said.
Personally, I hope to increase knowledge on the role of class and poverty in health at Yale, and to eventually develop interventions to improve the financial and general well-being of pregnant mothers.
Kunmi Sobowale, MD, first-year resident
Financial coaching modules will also be added to the organization’s MOMBA mobile application, a social networking platform for low-income mothers that promotes social support and social connectedness. Sobowale hopes to develop a better understanding of the financial behaviors and financial stress of low-income mothers.
“These findings will be invaluable to successfully integrate financial coaching into these existing interventions and inform future intervention development and adaptation,” he said. “Personally, I hope to increase knowledge on the role of class and poverty in health at Yale, and to eventually develop interventions to improve the financial and general well-being of pregnant mothers.”
Experts in poverty and mental maternal health and mobile health will be brought to campus to speak as part of the fellowship.