The Community Research for Health Equity (CRHE) program, managed by AcademyHealth and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), supports community-led research to address local health care system issues of importance to communities of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other historically marginalized populations.
Over the past year, we have been featuring interviews with CRHE grantees to showcase and celebrate their work during relevant celebration and recognition months. In the sixth interview of this series, AcademyHealth Research Associate, Ellie Jorling (she/her), speaks with Associate Professor Dr. Leah Frerichs (she/her) and Research Assistant Ellie Sellers (she/her) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to discuss their current project and to celebrate community-led adolescent research on World Teen Mental Wellness Day (March 2). The University of North Carolina, Center for Health Equity Research’s project, in partnership with Community Enrichment Organization, seeks to assess mental health systems care and provide youth-led recommendations for improving care policies in their community of Tarboro, North Carolina. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Ellie Jorling: How did you select your research question? Why this question and why now?
Leah Frerichs: Our process to select our research question has been a long evolution. We have spent a lot of time developing a foundation of trust and relationships in the community and with the youth we’ve been working with. The project examines a rural community in North Carolina, primarily anchored in a small town called Tarboro. The youth we’re working with are predominantly African American, and there are also white and Hispanic youth. There’s a long history of how race has played out in Tarboro, from the time of people being enslaved up until recent times with environmental racism.
We started out thinking about physical activity, but it was apparent that the youth were interested in mental health. COVID happened and that forced us to really think about mental and emotional health. A lot of the youth we were working with then were like, “We are not ok.” We went down a thoughtful and intentional path to talk to youth in the community to find out how they were managing. It came down to the fact that we needed to better understand mental health in this community, how people perceive it, and what the experiences are of accessing mental health services.
Ellie Jorling: What have you learned from your study so far?
Ellie Sellers: The youth in this community are diligent about the preservation of their health and the health of their fellow community members. Edgecombe County [where Tarboro is located] lacks resources that people in academia or who are adjacent to cities have and consider normal. These youth are frequently exposed to violence that is so prevalent that it is expected. The violence and lack of resources has forced the community to support itself, and created systems and routines of support, whether in churches or within families or in other spaces. These systems and preservation methods are used by the community to uplift each other. Our research will highlight communities [like Tarboro], but I think it’s also important that we recognize all the work that has already been done by the community members themselves.
[As a member of the community myself prior to going to college,] I was part of a youth advisory board that initially did research on physical activity both within and outside of school. When I became a student at the University of North Carolina, I was lucky to still have that connection with the research team and to step into a new role as a researcher and the academia side. It’s exciting to have had so many roles within this project.
Ellie Jorling: How does being from the community of focus inform the work that you’re doing?
Ellie Sellers: I think it’s very loaded at times. Especially when we’re talking about mental health and the experiences that people are unpacking. All of our team members are constantly balancing the love for this work and the importance of self-care. The people we are discussing or talking with are people I’ve known since I was very young—these are friends, family members, community leaders, people I’ve been supported by, and who I’ve sat next to at Tarboro High School football games.
I’ve been finding new love for my community, new intimacy for the people who are allowing me into their stories.
I think being from this community provides me with a great advantage as a researcher. There’s an awareness of the landscape, the people, the traditions, the folklore of the community, which has been vital [in understanding and being able to connect with] the students. There’s something that exists within me and within all the people that I’ve talked to from my community. It’s a passion for and love of Tarboro, North Carolina, its complicated history and its continued growth.
Ellie Jorling: How do you want to celebrate and think about the work that you are doing, and the future of mental health research on World Teen Mental Wellness Day?
Leah Frerichs: I want to celebrate how we’ve created safe and brave spaces for teens to share their experiences and be part of this research and help them feel heard and understood. We’ve been intentional about creating a space where they have roles to create the agenda, to put activities together, have a voice and share what they are going through. If anything, it’s to celebrate that and to expand so that we can have these kinds of spaces in more communities, as places of healing and support for their mental and emotional wellness.
Ellie Sellers: Our research is youth-led. I would encourage anyone reading this to find a space and the courage to allow the youth to lead. Youth are very knowledgeable about their mental health, their experiences, and they are ambitious. They are not jaded by the realities of the world like many adults are. Lean into our young people, allow them the space to grow, and support them.
If you would like to read more about the University of North Carolina’s CRHE grant, you can view that here. Earlier posts in this series featured CRHE grantees during Pride Month, Disability Pride Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, National Native American Heritage Month, and Black History Month. This work is made possible with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of RWJF.