Location

MEMH 116A, 116B, 121

  • Department of Psychological Science
  • University of Arkansas
  • 480 N. Campus Walk
  • Fayetteville, AR 72701
  • 479-575-7605

In the News

Latest Headlines

Dr. Ana Bridges was the featured researcher on ABCT's website / October 2023

Marley Fradley moderated a webinar given by Dr. Sheila Rauch on addressing trauma and treating PTSD in primary care. / July 2025

Emily Allen was highlighted in a recent University of Arkansas Graduate Student Profile. / April 2025

About us

Research

The DREAM lab at the University of Arkansas, under the direction of Dr. Ana Bridges, conducts research related to understanding barriers vulnerable and underserved populations face when trying to access care for mental health problems. Although much of the work done by lab members focuses on Latinx populations, especially immigrants and first generation Latinxs, work with other underserved populations such as incarcerated women or rural residents fits well within the scope of the lab.

The American Psychological Association and National Institutes of Health have noted that health disparities contribute to increased rates of morbidity and mortality, cost the US government and taxpayers money not only in paying for expensive services such as emergency room visits for uninsured and underinsured populations but also in the workplace by decreasing workers' productivity. Furthermore, health disparities negatively impact mental health.

Therefore, the DREAM lab focuses on discovering factors that can reduce health disparities by conducting research to understand:

  • the structural, economic, environmental, and psychological factors that relate to the development and course of mental disorders in populations that experience disparities;

  • the decision to seek help for mental disorders; and

  • therapeutic approaches that are culturally responsive, reduce barriers to accessing care, and are efficacious.

  • Community Partners

    We are fortunate to have established strong relationships with some outstanding community agencies that work hard to reduce barriers to accessing quality care for residents of Northwest Arkansas. Among these partners are:

    Community Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center. Community Clinic has numerous primary medical clinics, school-based health clinics, and dental clinics across the Northwest Arkansas area and surrounding regions. Many of the clinic's patients speak a primary language other than English and most patients are at 200% or below the Federal Poverty Level. In 2009, Community Clinic partnered with Dr. Bridges to bring behavioral health care to their primary care sites. Currently, the Clinical Psychology doctoral program places 1-2 students at these sites for a year-long clerkship experience. In addition, Dr. Bridges and members of the DREAM lab conduct program evaluation of behavioral health care services and primary patient clinical outcome research at Community Clinic. Dr. Bridges and her students have been developing specific treatment protocols to be used in brief interventions in primary care, including behavioral interventions for insomnia, brief interventions to address depression and traumatic stress, and active approaches for managing patients with moderate levels of suicidality. More recently, we have developed a brief assessment protocol to evaluate primary care patients for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and plan to expand primary care evaluations to include assessment for autism.

    Washington County Detention Center. A recent collaboration between the WCDC and the University of Arkansas has allows our students to offer, for the first time, therapeutic programming in the local jail. Programming focuses on addressing trauma and its sequelae in incarcerated women, with an expansion into men's therapeutic services planned to launch in Fall 2025. Even protocols developed for prisons are difficult to implement in jails, given the transient nature of the population. Therefore, Dr. Bridges and the DREAM team are planning a jail-wide mental health needs assessment to guide therapeutic program development and delivery.

    Pat Walker Health Center, the U of A campus primary care clinic, has partnered with Dr. Bridges and the clinical psychology doctoral program to embed clinical trainees into the primary care setting, where we provide brief behavioral interventions for health and related conditions. This also serves as a recruitment site for randomized control trials and open trials evaluating the effectivness of brief behavioral health interventions.

    Copyright Dr. Ana Bridges

    Updated: August 2025