Faculty & Staff
Faculty
 |
Mario Hernandez, PhDProfessorPhone: 813-974-4640 |
Research Interests:
Accessibility of mental health services for diverse children and families; reducing mental health disparities
Dr. Mario Hernandez is Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) within the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences at the University of South Florida. He served as Chair of CFS from 2008 - 2022.
His research interests include accessibility of mental health services for diverse children and families, and identifying and measuring organizational factors associated with reducing mental health disparities. Also, he has developed an approach using logic models and theories of change that supports the design and implementation of local child mental health collaboratives. Dr. Hernandez has been instrumental in helping many local communities build and design their child mental health services using logic models.
Dr. Hernandez has co-edited two books, Promoting Cultural Competence in Children’s Mental Health Services (1998) and Developing Outcome Strategies in Children’s Mental Health (2001). He has also published articles and book chapters on developing outcome strategies for children’s mental health, cultural competence and in applying logic models to support community change efforts. Additionally, he edited and contributed to: a special issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology, focused on exemplars of community practice that have used logic models to guide their local efforts; the Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, focusing on child mental health policy; and, the Journal of Behavioral Healthcare and Research, focusing on system accountability in children’s mental health.