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Chavous Introduction: Mental Health among Marginalized Communities Currents: Journal of Diversity Scholarship for Social Change

During the pandemic, many detention facilities for young people substantially reduced their mental health services, which limited access to counselors and treatment programs and enforced 23-hour periods of isolation to prevent the spread of coronavirus, halting family visitation.14 These mitigation measures substantially affected young people’s mental health, which is concerning given that approximately 70% of young people in detention centers or correctional settings have a preexisting mental health disorder.15 Finally, while recognizing the vitality of secondary and tertiary prevention in treatment, recovery and relapse prevention for people with existing mental disorders, primary prevention needs to be integrated into equitable and accessible whole‐population care systems. Social prescribing, primarily adopted by primary care physicians, connects individuals with established mental disorders to sources of social support within local communities404.

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  • Apart from ongoing social circumstances, certain changing social dynamics can also contribute to mental health challenges.
  • Resilience in the study of minority stress and health of sexual and gender minorities.
  • While the COVID‐19 pandemic – a textbook period effect – appears to have had only minimal impact on long‐term mental health in the general population34, 35, impacts on children and young people, who have often borne the brunt of restrictive lockdown policies, are more pronounced25, 34, 35.
  • Systemic underinvestment, disenfranchisement and lack of opportunities in such neighbourhoods restrict upward social mobility, and so these experiences – including deleterious mental health outcomes – become highly intractable, intergenerational and systemic forms of disadvantage and oppression.
  • Many mental health professionals lack adequate training in gender identity issues, and transgender individuals often encounter a lack of understanding or outright hostility from healthcare providers.
  • The collection of pieces presented in this special issue give us insight into the unique mental health experiences and needs across marginalized communities, and intersecting identities must be taken into account when analyzing a population and developing interventions.

Implementations of innovative care models were found to provide cost-saving, more feasible and effective pharmacologic treatment and antidepressant adherence; improve depression outcomes; and improve satisfaction for patients and clinicians (68). Collaborative care is a systemic, team-based approach to the management of psychiatric disorders in medical settings. For this reason, collaborative models of care were developed, including the embedded psychiatric consultation model (5). The United States is currently facing a significant shortage and maldistribution of physicians, particularly among PCPs and mental health professionals in rural and low-income urban areas.

mental health for marginalized communities

However, individuals living in poverty may lack these supports due to social isolation, geographic displacement, or lack of social services in their neighborhoods. Even when services are available, many individuals cannot afford them, and the mental health system may not be equipped Latino behavioral health challenges conference to address the needs of low-income individuals. Furthermore, individuals with invisible disabilities, such as mental health disorders or chronic pain, may struggle to gain recognition or accommodations from others. Disabled individuals, including those with physical disabilities, chronic illnesses, and mental health conditions, also face significant mental health struggles. These higher rates of mental health issues are largely a result of social rejection, discrimination, and violence that many LGBTQ+ individuals face.

mental health for marginalized communities

My Youth Mentoring Journey

Addressing mental health concerns in underserved communities requires multifaceted strategies that tackle systemic, cultural, and socioeconomic barriers to care. Education campaigns can empower communities by providing knowledge about mental health and available resources. By bringing mental health services directly to communities, these programs can reduce barriers such as transportation issues and lack of local providers. Ongoing efforts to diversify the mental health workforce and adapt treatment modalities culturally are essential for enhancing engagement and supporting recovery in underserved populations. Furthermore, increasing community-based interventions—such as mobile mental health clinics—helps to bridge the gap in service delivery, reaching those in high-risk areas directly.

mental health for marginalized communities

They achieve this by listening to the individual, investing in leading community based organizations, working with national partners, examining and improving the resources and systems available, and designing solutions to make health a part of each person’s life. Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective is a collective of advocates, yoga teachers, artists, therapists, lawyers, religious leaders, teachers, psychologists and activists committed to the emotional/mental health and healing of Black communities. Black Girls Smile’s vision is of a society that focuses on ensuring all young African American females receive the resources and support necessary to lead mentally healthy lives. They focus on mental health education for African American communities. The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation’s vision is to eradicate the stigma around mental health issues in the African-American community. With their educational programs, Naseeha raises awareness within the community around mental health.

mental health for marginalized communities

Assistant Community Manager- Eastpointe Commons- Grand Rapids, MI

mental health for marginalized communities

A recent scoping review of social capital and psychosis found mixed evidence of an association257, with considerable heterogeneity in study design, definitions of social capital, assessment instruments, setting, control for confounders, and findings. Nonetheless, effect sizes for suicidal outcomes appear modest, and are often limited to – or stronger in – various subgroups, including White men and women261, non‐Hispanic Black groups262, men alone262, younger groups259 or unmarried people259, or are sometimes not found at all260. Given such complexities, it would be surprising if there was a universal effect of social capital on health. Social capital encapsulates the nature and stock of shared social resources, relationships and networks available for groups to achieve common goals or outcomes. The aforementioned studies typically estimated associations between average levels of neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage and mental health.

Further research from the US22, Canada23, Europe24, France25, Iceland26 and Australia27, 28 all suggest that rates of depression, anxiety, self‐harm, eating disorders, attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and suicide have risen rapidly amongst teenagers since , particularly in females26, 27, 30, 31. Frontline pharmacological treatments for depression, anxiety, psychosis and bipolar disorder have remained largely unchanged since they were first developed in the 20th century9; treatment resistance affects 20‐60% of our patients10; and the pharmaceutical industry has largely withdrawn from psychiatric drug discovery in the last 20 years11. We have also achieved a better understanding of how complex the neurobiology of different psychiatric conditions is likely to be7, including depression, psychosis and bipolar disorder. In a digital world filled with conflicting and misleading health information, our goal is to be a source you can truly trust. Amelia’s passion is making complex health topics understandable without sacrificing rigor, helping TrustedHealthGuides.com remain a reliable resource for audiences seeking trustworthy health information.

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