Bilingual and Spanish Interdisciplinary Clinical Training Program (BASIC-T)

UCLA’s Hispanic Neuropsychiatric Center of Excellence (HNCE) has partnered with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) to create BASIC-T, both a Pipeline Program and Continuing Education Program that directly addresses the assessment needs of the people of Los Angeles, and concomitantly addresses the goals of the Cultural Competency Committee (CCC). Specifically, this two-pronged approach aims to build a new pipeline of culturally and linguistically proficient providers, and to immediately deploy education and training for current staff to meet the needs of the increasingly diverse population of LACDMH.

While LACDMH includes a diverse Latina/o population, there is a significant lack of appropriately trained bilingual and bicultural professionals who can meet the specific mental health needs of this community. This often means that many Latina/os do not receive the same standard of care with regard to neuropsychological assessment that is available to other community members. The end result is that interventions geared toward delaying further neurocognitive decline is significantly delayed. BASIC-T creates a meaningful solution to this problem both imminently and into the future.