A Program Plan: Project FRAMME: Forming Religious Alliances for Mental and Medical Education

Depression continues to serve as a clinical source of morbidity and mortality nationwide. Although there has been minimal data collected to suggest that this disease affects individuals disproportionately across races, it is becoming increasingly evident that a disparate phenomena exists in regards to treatment, access to care, and diagnosis among marginalized populations. African American females are a unique subset of this marginalized population as barriers to care exceed superficial realities such as transportation and socioeconomic status and extend to less transparent impediments shaped by spirituality, stigma, and racism. This paper will serve to analyze the obstacles that lead to disparate depression management among African American Females and will offer an alternate method of intervention via the black church. This paper will include a Program Plan to define and describe Project FRAMME as well as a two-dimensional literature review to examine past interventions modeled using the black church and an analysis of the use of Mental Health services mediated by the church.Master of Public Healt