Luis Zayas‘ primary interests are in clinical practice with adolescents and families and in training clinical practitioners. His clinical experience spans 25 years of working with children, adolescents, adults and families in community mental health, psychiatric clinics, pediatric rehabilitation and community-based primary care medicine. He is a licensed psychologist and social worker.
Dr. Zayas’ research has examined child and adolescent mental health, maternal mental health in pregnancy, parent-child relations, cross-cultural factors in child-rearing behavior, family functioning, psychiatric diagnosis, alcohol use among Latino men and psychosocial interventions in community-based primary care health centers.
He is currently conducting research on the influence of ethnicity and language on the psychiatric diagnostic process. Dr. Zayas is also preparing studies on the socio-cultural and developmental processes that influence suicidal behavior among adolescent Latinas and on treating perinatal depression in urban health centers.
He has received several awards, among them the Rafael Tavares, MD, Award from the Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professionals in 2000 for outstanding research and clinical practice with Hispanics. He is currently on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis.
