Mental Health IssueRIWP+NCT05092542
Intervention to Address Disparate Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 Pandemic on Latinx and African Newcomers
A study testing Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP) in people with Mental Health Issue and Mental Health Disorder, run by University of New Mexico at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
This study tests the effectiveness of a community-based peer advocacy, mutual learning, and social support intervention (Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project) to reduce several negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that are disproportionately impacting Latinx and Black populations: psychological distress… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Mental Health Issue, Mental Health Disorder, Stress, Emotional
- What is being tested?
- Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP)
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 1,212 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 18 Oct 2021to 30 Dec 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- All Latinx immigrants and African refugees aged 18 and older residing in New Mexico will be eligible to participate.
Who cannot join
- For the random sample of 1000 Latinx immigrants, exclusion criteria will be having used the services of one of the four community-based partner organizations serving Latinx immigrants within the past year (at time of study enrollment). For the 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited through the five community-based organizations, exclusion criteria will be severe cognitive functioning problems or mental illness that is so severe as to impede participation in a group and that warrants immediate individual treatment.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131
About this study
Official title: Multilevel Community-Based Mental Health Intervention to Address Structural Inequities and Adverse Disparate Consequences of COVID-19 Pandemic on Latinx Immigrant and African Refugees
This study tests the effectiveness of a community-based peer advocacy, mutual learning, and social support intervention (Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project) to reduce several negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that are disproportionately impacting Latinx and Black populations: psychological distress, financial problems, and daily stressors. In partnership with five community-based organizations that focus on mental health, legal, education, and youth issues with Latinx immigrants and African refugees, we will also be able to examine the effects of people's involvement with community-based organizations and local and state policy changes on their mental health, economic stability, stressors, and social support. This is important not only for Latinx and Black populations and the large number of immigrants and refugees in the United States and worldwide, but also because the intervention model and what we learn from this study have the potential to alleviate mental health disparities experienced by other marginalized populations who face unequal access to social and material resources, disproportionate exposure to trauma and stress, and worse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the detailed description
The goal of this study is to test a multilevel approach to reduce adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic with disparate impacts on Latinx and Black immigrants and refugees by observing and implementing three nested levels of intervention: 1) an efficacious 6-month peer advocacy and mutual learning model (Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project, RIWP); 2) engagement with community-based organizations (CBOs); and 3) structural policy changes expected to be enacted in response to the pandemic, such as a state disaster relief proposal for mixed status Latinx families and expanded statewide health insurance coverage. This community-based participatory research (CBPR) study builds on a long-standing collaboration with five community-based organizations (CBOs) that focus on mental health, education, legal issues, and system change efforts to improve the well-being of Latinx immigrants and African refugees. By including 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited from CBO partners who are randomly assigned to treatment-as-usual CBO involvement or the RIWP intervention and a random sample comparison group of 900 Latinx immigrants, this mixed methods longitudinal waitlist control group design study with five time points over 28 months will test the effectiveness of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to reduce psychological distress, daily stressors, and economic precarity and increase protective factors (social support, critical awareness of/access to resources, English proficiency, cultural connectedness, and mental health service use). This study will also test the ability of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to increase access to the direct benefits of structural interventions (local/state relief-related policies) for Latinx and Black immigrants and refugees. Mechanisms of intervention effectiveness will be explored by testing mediating relationships between primary outcomes and protective factors. Investigators will also track local/state policy changes and obtain preliminary quantitative estimates of effects of these structural interventions on psychological distress, stressors, and economic precarity using propensity score matching. Qualitative interview data from a purposive subsample of participants and CBO staff will enable additional exploration of mechanisms of change, the effects of policy interventions on individuals, how CBOs contribute to enacting policies and helping people benefit from them, and the context of RIWP implementation at each site. This research is innovative and significant because it employs cutting-edge research design and intervention strategies to advance the science of multilevel mental health interventions that aim to understand and address underlying structural inequities and resulting mental health disparities that have been highlighted and exacerbated by the pandemic. Thus, this study will contribute not only to reducing the disparate adverse mental health, behavioral, and socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic but also to eliminating mental health disparities among Latinx and Black populations.
- Being tested
- Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP)
- Keywords
- Latinx immigrant, African refugee
- Medical subject headings
- Mental Disorders, Stress, Psychological
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP)Behavioural
Also called Refugee Well-being Project (RWP), Immigrant Well-being Project (IWP)
6-month mental health intervention that pairs university students with newcomers to engage in mutual learning, resource mobilization, and social change efforts
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Random Sample of Latinx Immigrants | No intervention | random sample comparison group of Latinx immigrants who are NOT randomly assigned to a treatment condition |
| Refugee & Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP) Intervention | Experimental | 6-month mental health intervention that pairs university students with newcomers to engage in mutual learning, resource mobilization, and social change efforts Receives: Behavioral: Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP) |
| Treatment-as-usual Waitlist Control Group | No intervention | participants recruited from community-based organizations receive usual services from community-based organizations and may participate in RIWP intervention in Year 3 |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Psychological Distress
DSM Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure-Adult and COVID-19 and Mental Health Impacts Scale (from PhenX Toolkit)
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Psychological Distress
PHQ-9
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Psychological Distress
GAD-7
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Physical Health
WHODAS-2
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Daily Stressors
Perceived Stress Scale
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Economic Precarity
Job Insecurity General Social Survey 2018 Questions and RAND American Life Panel Impacts of COVID-19 Survey
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Secondary outcomes (6)
Access to Resources
Satisfaction with Resources Scale
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Social Support
Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey, 8-item version
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Cultural Connectedness
Language, Identity, and Behavior Acculturation Scale
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Health Services Use
Composite International Diagnostic Interview (selected questions)
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
English Proficiency
4 items about understanding, reading, speaking, and writing
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Discrimination
Experience of Discrimination (EOD) Scale
Measured: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted25 Oct 2021
- Study start18 Oct 2021
- Primary completion31 Jul 2025
- Study completion30 Dec 2026 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Mental Health IssueStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Factorial
- Model description
- By including 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited from CBO partners who are randomly assigned to treatment-as-usual CBO involvement or the RIWP intervention and a random sample comparison group of 900 Latinx immigrants, this mixed methods longitudinal waitlist control group design study with five time points over 28 months will test the effectiveness of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to reduce psychological distress, daily stressors, and economic precarity and increase protective factors (social support, critical awareness of/access to resources, English proficiency, cultural connectedness, and mental health service use).
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 1,212 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of New Mexico
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05092542
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 07521
- Other IDs
- R01MH127733
- Acronym
- RIWP+
- Status last verified
- Nov 2026
- First submitted
- 22 Oct 2021
- Last updated
- 6 Nov 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- Yes
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes: After all analyses are completed and presentations/publications are finalized, a de-identified dataset will be available to other researchers, communities, or providers, upon request. All requests would have to be approved by the Community Advisory Council and would have to demonstrate that the proposed use of the data would contribute to the reduction of mental health disparities (e.g., through improved detection, diagnosis, treatment or prevention of mental illness or through contributing to knowledge of these issues) and would not harm any individuals or communities (e.g., through naïve use of the data that might result in misrepresentation of the experiences of Latinx immigrants or African refugee individuals, families, or communities). Also, the data will be entered and available through the NIMH Data Archive.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 6 Nov 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Multilevel Community-Based Mental Health Intervention to Address Structural Inequities and Adverse Disparate Consequences of COVID-19 Pandemic on Latinx Immigrant and African Refugees
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05092542
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- RIWP+ / 07521
- Keywords
- Latinx immigrant, African refugee
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Active, not recruiting
- Enrolment
- 1,212 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- University of New MexicoUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- Study start
- 18 Oct 2021 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Jul 2025 (actual)
- Study completion
- 30 Dec 2026 (estimated)
- First posted
- 25 Oct 2021 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This study tests the effectiveness of a community-based peer advocacy, mutual learning, and social support intervention (Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project) to reduce several negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic that are disproportionately impacting Latinx and Black populations: psychological distress, financial problems, and daily stressors. In partnership with five community-based organizations that focus on mental health, legal, education, and youth issues with Latinx immigrants and African refugees, we will also be able to examine the effects of people's involvement with community-based organizations and local and state policy changes on their mental health, economic stability, stressors, and social support. This is important not only for Latinx and Black populations and the large number of immigrants and refugees in the United States and worldwide, but also because the intervention model and what we learn from this study have the potential to alleviate mental health disparities experienced by other marginalized populations who face unequal access to social and material resources, disproportionate exposure to trauma and stress, and worse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Detailed description
The goal of this study is to test a multilevel approach to reduce adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic with disparate impacts on Latinx and Black immigrants and refugees by observing and implementing three nested levels of intervention: 1) an efficacious 6-month peer advocacy and mutual learning model (Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project, RIWP); 2) engagement with community-based organizations (CBOs); and 3) structural policy changes expected to be enacted in response to the pandemic, such as a state disaster relief proposal for mixed status Latinx families and expanded statewide health insurance coverage. This community-based participatory research (CBPR) study builds on a long-standing collaboration with five community-based organizations (CBOs) that focus on mental health, education, legal issues, and system change efforts to improve the well-being of Latinx immigrants and African refugees. By including 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited from CBO partners who are randomly assigned to treatment-as-usual CBO involvement or the RIWP intervention and a random sample comparison group of 900 Latinx immigrants, this mixed methods longitudinal waitlist control group design study with five time points over 28 months will test the effectiveness of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to reduce psychological distress, daily stressors, and economic precarity and increase protective factors (social support, critical awareness of/access to resources, English proficiency, cultural connectedness, and mental health service use). This study will also test the ability of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to increase access to the direct benefits of structural interventions (local/state relief-related policies) for Latinx and Black immigrants and refugees. Mechanisms of intervention effectiveness will be explored by testing mediating relationships between primary outcomes and protective factors. Investigators will also track local/state policy changes and obtain preliminary quantitative estimates of effects of these structural interventions on psychological distress, stressors, and economic precarity using propensity score matching. Qualitative interview data from a purposive subsample of participants and CBO staff will enable additional exploration of mechanisms of change, the effects of policy interventions on individuals, how CBOs contribute to enacting policies and helping people benefit from them, and the context of RIWP implementation at each site. This research is innovative and significant because it employs cutting-edge research design and intervention strategies to advance the science of multilevel mental health interventions that aim to understand and address underlying structural inequities and resulting mental health disparities that have been highlighted and exacerbated by the pandemic. Thus, this study will contribute not only to reducing the disparate adverse mental health, behavioral, and socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic but also to eliminating mental health disparities among Latinx and Black populations.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Factorial
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 3
- Model description
- By including 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited from CBO partners who are randomly assigned to treatment-as-usual CBO involvement or the RIWP intervention and a random sample comparison group of 900 Latinx immigrants, this mixed methods longitudinal waitlist control group design study with five time points over 28 months will test the effectiveness of the RIWP intervention and engagement with CBOs to reduce psychological distress, daily stressors, and economic precarity and increase protective factors (social support, critical awareness of/access to resources, English proficiency, cultural connectedness, and mental health service use).
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Random Sample of Latinx Immigrants | No intervention | –random sample comparison group of Latinx immigrants who are NOT randomly assigned to a treatment condition |
| Refugee & Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP) Intervention | Experimental | Behavioral: Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP)6-month mental health intervention that pairs university students with newcomers to engage in mutual learning, resource mobilization, and social change efforts |
| Treatment-as-usual Waitlist Control Group | No intervention | –participants recruited from community-based organizations receive usual services from community-based organizations and may participate in RIWP intervention in Year 3 |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- All Latinx immigrants and African refugees aged 18 and older residing in New Mexico will be eligible to participate.
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- For the random sample of 1000 Latinx immigrants, exclusion criteria will be having used the services of one of the four community-based partner organizations serving Latinx immigrants within the past year (at time of study enrollment). For the 240 Latinx immigrants and 60 African refugees recruited through the five community-based organizations, exclusion criteria will be severe cognitive functioning problems or mental illness that is so severe as to impede participation in a group and that warrants immediate individual treatment.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP)Also: Refugee Well-being Project (RWP), Immigrant Well-being Project (IWP)6-month mental health intervention that pairs university students with newcomers to engage in mutual learning, resource mobilization, and social change efforts | Behavioural | Refugee & Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP) Intervention |
Primary outcome
Psychological Distress
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
DSM Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure-Adult and COVID-19 and Mental Health Impacts Scale (from PhenX Toolkit)
Psychological Distress
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
PHQ-9
Psychological Distress
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
GAD-7
Physical Health
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
WHODAS-2
Daily Stressors
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Perceived Stress Scale
Economic Precarity
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Job Insecurity General Social Survey 2018 Questions and RAND American Life Panel Impacts of COVID-19 Survey
6 secondary outcomes
Access to Resources
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Social Support
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Cultural Connectedness
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Health Services Use
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
English Proficiency
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Discrimination
Time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 6 Nov 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes. After all analyses are completed and presentations/publications are finalized, a de-identified dataset will be available to other researchers, communities, or providers, upon request. All requests would have to be approved by the Community Advisory Council and would have to demonstrate that the proposed use of the data would contribute to the reduction of mental health disparities (e.g., through improved detection, diagnosis, treatment or prevention of mental illness or through contributing to knowledge of these issues) and would not harm any individuals or communities (e.g., through naïve use of the data that might result in misrepresentation of the experiences of Latinx immigrants or African refugee individuals, families, or communities). Also, the data will be entered and available through the NIMH Data Archive.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
The record lists no contact. Use the official record to reach the sponsor.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Refugee and Immigrant Well-being Project (RIWP) in people with Mental Health Issue and Mental Health Disorder, run by University of New Mexico at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: under way, not looking for participants, as of the sponsor's last update on 6 Nov 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Psychological Distress (time frame: All 7 timepoints over 36 months). The study lists 6 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 6 Nov 2026; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 8 Nov 2026.