Mashable: Prof. Belkin Martinez Shows the Impact of Community on One’s Mental Health
As the US transitions into a post-pandemic state, individuals need more than therapy to address their mental health needs. In an article exploring the many facets of mental health today, Prof. Dawn Belkin Martinez discusses the need for alternative models of social work practice like the Liberation Health Framework, which explore the cultural, social, and institutional barriers to being healthy physically and mentally. By addressing and working to change these systems, social workers, therapists, and others who work in mental health can proactively address a major source of health obstacles.
Excerpt from “After COVID-19, We’re Going to Need More than Therapy” (Mashable) by Rebecca Ruiz:
With increased federal funding, community mental health centers, which typically operate as small hospitals or therapy clinics, could serve as hubs for support groups and workshops. They could also add social programming that brings people together to enjoy hobbies and activities like baking and basketball. If this doesn’t sound like mental health care, Dawn Belkin Martinez, associate dean for equity and inclusion and clinical associate professor at Boston University’s School of Social Work, disagrees.
‘I think that community is a healing intervention,’ she says.
Belkin Martinez applies a ‘liberation health’ philosophy to her work with students and clients. The goal is not just to help people cope better with stressors and mental health conditions. It’s to also help them understand how the systems that rule their lives — think capitalism, structural racism, misogyny, and so on — affect their well-being, and then take action to change these external conditions while deconstructing the negative messages about their self-worth they’ve internalized as a result. By adopting a different framework for viewing their problems while tapping into community networks and support to thrive, they can chart a path forward.
Unfortunately, this is what’s missing from many therapy experiences. Belkin Martinez says traditional training doesn’t teach therapists how to collaboratively identify and discuss the connections between mental health and socio-political factors. Psychology as a workforce also isn’t diverse, which means therapists can be culturally incompetent depending on their client’s background. In particular, people of color, those with disabilities, and those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender who’ve sought help but had to battle stereotypes or discrimination know this obstacle well.”