Supporting Mental Health for All: The Importance of Community Engagement

What does supporting mental health for all really mean? A difficult and complex question that I have reflected on, and while there is not one simple answer, at its core it involves a commitment to person-centeredness. Our World Mental Health Day discussion focused on the development, implementation, evaluation, and implications of How Right Now – a national, research-based communications campaign aimed to promote and strengthen the emotional well-being and resiliency of high-risk populations adversely affected by COVID-19 - related stress, grief, and loss.

Moving from Crisis to Continuum: Nurturing Veteran Well-being

As a graduate student researcher and practitioner in clinical psychology, discussions about how to meet the unique mental health needs of veterans and service members arise frequently. However, these conversations often center on responding to crisis situations, rather than envisioning how we might prevent them. I believe that by understanding what veteran mental health looks like across a continuum, we can better understand how to support veteran well-being.

Now is the Time: Ending Stigma Around Mental Illness and Improving Mental Health 

During Mental Health Month, the Global Alliance co-sponsored Youth Well-Being in a Digital World: The Roles of Schools and Communities along with:

As adults who identify as LGBTQ+ age, they face several unique and challenging issues related to older adulthood, leading to social, economic, and health disparities. A recent national study found that aging adults in the LGBTQ+ community face greater levels of depression, loneliness, disability and social isolation, putting this population at increased risk for mental and physical health conditions. These findings are consistent with a growing number of studies demonstrating the health impact of the systemic oppression of the LGBTQ+ community as individuals reach older age. The “shifting contexts” of aging adults identifying as LGBTQ+ leave many older individuals vulnerable to a variety of health and social issues. As the circumstances of daily living, social life, and healthcare change throughout older age, adults in the LGBTQ+ community face fewer opportunities to maintain their health and greater barriers to achieving well-being. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new realities for the entire world. In an effort to support graduate students during this time, The Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice invited graduate students via email to participate in a global discussion group to understand how COVID-19 impacts them, their educations, and their communities. Eleven graduate students in total representing the USA, Canada, and Nepal responded to the invitation and participated in the global discussion group. The authors of this blog post represent a portion of the students who participated and moderated the discussion. While multiple concerns were raised throughout the discussion, several key themes emerged, which centered on: