This issue of the Community Development Innovation Review is dedicated to the topic of mental health and community development. It advances the healthy communities conversation by explicitly recognizing the relationship between mental health and physical health as well as the role social factors play in both aspects of overall wellbeing. As the World Health Organization (WHO) says, “There is no health without mental health.” As the articles in this issue of the Review reveal, there are profound connections between poverty, place, and poor mental health. Issues like financial insecurity, housing instability, community violence, and limited economic prospects are risk factors for poor mental health—they are also the very same issues that community development seeks to address. In addition, the articles explore emerging themes in the field and their connection to mental health, such as the prevalence of trauma, community resilience in the face of climate change, and the power of arts and culture to engage and activate a community.
Table of Contents
Moving Upstream to Promote Mental Health: The Role of Community Development
“Upstream” social factors, like neighborhood conditions, can have a profound impact on mental health, suggesting that community development has an important opportunity to proactively work across sectors and promote the mental health of low-income communities.
The Mental Health Imperative: Learning from History and Innovating Forward
To chart a successful path forward, policymakers and community leaders must take a systems lens and provide thoughtful leadership, strategic community investment, and a comprehensive vision of health that includes mental, emotional, and social health.
Catalyzing Community Action for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Community development approaches, coupled with resident community action, can reach across multiple sectors to measurably influence mental wellbeing at a community level. The field is well positioned to guide partnerships that improve the community determinants of health associated with mental wellbeing.
Widening Our Health Lens: Incorporating Trauma-Informed Practice into Affordable Housing
This article discusses the implications of a trauma-informed lens for affordable housing developers and how building a comprehensive culture of trauma awareness and sensitivity can improve the life trajectory of young people living in affordable housing communities.
Arts, Culture, and Community Mental Health
Creative placemaking has an impact on multiple aspects of mental health, including stigma; trauma; community-level stress, depression, and substance use disorders; and cultural identity. This article describes their relevance to public health and provides examples of initiatives that address them.
The community development and health care sectors can partner to improve mental health, and the Accountable Health Communities Model provides a specific example of how to do so. Community development could help to address health-related social needs and promote mental health recovery.
This essay summarizes the research that confirms the persistent association between adverse housing conditions and mental health inequity. It also explores the theoretical grounding that supports intervening to disrupt the relationship between poor housing and poor mental health.
This article explains how and why climate-related extreme weather events impact mental health, the restorative relationship between mental health and social capital, and the critical importance of social capital to other disaster-related community investments.
Building a Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health “Community of Solution” in Rural Colorado
Learn how a participatory collaboration between the residents, primary care practices, and practice-based researchers led to a “community of solution” working to address mental, emotional, and behavioral health needs in a rural community in Eastern Colorado.