Power Redistribution and Upending White Supremacy in Implementation Research and Practice in Community Mental Health

Psychiatr Serv. 2023 Sep 1;74(9):987-990. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.20220209. Epub 2023 Mar 6.

Abstract

This Open Forum explores how implementation research and practice may sustain White supremacist ideas, perpetuate unequal power dynamics, and maintain mental health care inequities. The following questions were considered: What information is valued and considered evidence? and How do power differentials within implementation research and practice manifest? The implementation of evidence-based interventions within community mental health clinics is used as an example to explore these questions. Recommendations are provided to envision a future that centers collaboratively developed and community-led approaches to foster equity in mental health care.

Keywords: Community engagement; Implementation research; Implementation science; Service delivery; Structural racism; White supremacy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Mental Health*
  • Racism*
  • White People