Busting the myth that depression doesn't affect people in poor countries

Child First is a program in Connecticut, where staff members deliver home-based parent guidance and child-parent psychotherapy to help prevent the detrimental physical and mental effects of toxic stress on children. The engagement is guided by an evidence-based methodology called Child-Parent Psychotherapy, which is grounded in collaborative problem solving.

The Luminous Mind provides culturally competent mental health care to people of color. Along with The Luminous Mind, universities in the state are working to increase the number of students of color that enter psychology degree programs. The state also has a culturally-informed mental health task force that provides competency training and recruits diverse mental health professionals, all in an effort to decolonize mental health care.

Across Georgia, a community-based mental health care approach has decreased both the duration and frequency of hospitalization for clients. This approach relies on mental health and other healthcare specialists delivering care to clients via mobile teams.

In Minneapolis, a collaboration between the Division of Race and Equity, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the city’s procurement department has helped establish an emergency mental health fund that aims to more equitably supply resources to the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reimbursement-based fund provides clinical counselors with the financial support necessary to increase their caseloads and focus on "helping people of color, women, indigenous people, disabled people, and those who are undocumented."

People who experience trauma in their early childhood are at a higher likelihood of experiencing chronic pain in later years, which often goes untreated. However, emotional awareness and expression therapy, which combines talk therapy with cognitive behavioral therapy, has shown significant success in treating those suffering from this health issue.

By bringing mental health professionals and religious leaders together, faith communities can “flip the fear” of mental illness. Using grants from the American Psychiatric Association, organizations like Support Embrace Empower Mental Health Advocacy (SEEMA), the Muslim Mental Health Conference, and the Stanford Muslims and Mental Health lab, are all working to remove barriers to mental health treatment. Their initiatives focus on education to overcome stigma and cultural misunderstandings.

This article uses the stories of five different activist women across the United States as examples of successes using the human-centered design strategy of centering the people most directly affected in the decision-making and healing process. The women work in a variety of justice areas (from housing equity to incarceration), but they all testify to a community justice model as being the most effective and empowering solution to past and current injustices.

In order to address dynamics that may keep a child from talking about traumatic experiences, a Mexico City-based child psychologist developed Antennas. Antennas is an animated character controlled and voiced by the psychologist who, as an alien, can ask basic questions about people and relationships. This approach has been effective for psychologists and use of Antennas has spread to the judicial system as well.

Jackson PD's Community Improvement division has been charged with destroying dangerous, dilapidated houses in low income neighborhoods, even though many are state-owned. In a resources-strapped city, where blight contributes to a vicious cycle of crime and poverty, the police take down the abandoned houses—an unusual role, but one that actually tackles the root causes of crime in an arguably more effective way than low-level fishing for arrests.

Assertive community treatment teams working through outreach-centered programs in Maricopa County have become an industry standard for treating those with persistent and severe mental illnesses who have recently been incarcerated. They provide a long-term approach, aiming to halt a cycle of incarceration and hospitalization by focusing on underlying issues such as what caused the police interaction and incarceration.