CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: Chapter Proposals for Communication and Mental Health in Global Contexts: Opportunities for Transformation, Representation, and Social Justice [Working Title]

Deadline for synopsis: May 30, 2024

Chapter Synopses (100-words) Invited for Consideration in New Edited Collection on Mental Health Communication and Social Justice

Brief Overview:

Following up on my recently published health communication for social justice text (Agarwal, 2024), I am seeking contributions for a proposed edited collection on mental health communication and social justice that provides a communicative examination of global mental health disparities, challenges, and manifestations and the opportunities for transformation, resilience, empowerment they offer in historically disadvantaged populations.

Submission for Consideration:

If you’re interested in being considered for this edited collection, I look forward to receiving a 100-word synopsis of your proposed contribution by May 30, 2024, at vxagarwal@salisbury.edu including:

A working title of your contribution
A tentative format for your contribution (e.g., literature review, theoretical critique, conceptual piece, original study)
Your name, affiliation, degree (emerging scholars and those who are ABD are encouraged to submit, possibly with a senior colleague or mentor)

[If accepted, final chapters will be approximately 5,000–6,000 words excluding references and will be expected tentatively by end 2024]

Detailed Description, Aims, and Overview of the Collection:

In a poll conducted in 2022, more than 90% of Americans reported feeling they were in a mental health crisis (Insel, 2023; Lopes et al, 2022). Globally, close to one billion people or one in eight people live with a mental health condition, with a majority in low resource settings–a number reflecting the burden war, poverty, and migration disproportionately place on minority and marginalized groups (World Health Organization, WHO, 2024). Living with a mental health condition is associated with an increased risk of disability, cardiovascular diseases, and premature death and is associated with contexts ranging from pandemics, climate change, chronic conditions, racial trauma, precarious work, loneliness, and social isolation (Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, May 3, 2023). In this context, the present call for a collection on mental health communication resonates with the Surgeon General’s advisory on the devastating mental health impacts on Americans of the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation (HHS.gov, 2023, May 2).

Communication is central to how we frame, represent, and attend to mental health issues. Health communication has been described as the way we seek, process, and share health information (Kreps & Thornton, 1992). A central imperative underlying this text is the fact that mental health disparities place historically marginalized groups at a higher risk and thus intersect fundamentally with the principles of social justice, particularly when these emphasize social justice activism as an ethical choice (Frey et al., 2020). Human rights and social justice frameworks are vital to understanding and addressing mental health inequities in their intersection with ethical principles of beneficence, autonomy, and respect for persons, among others. Given these considerations, this collection will integrate and present diverse perspectives comprising mental health communication scholarship that illustrate how mental health communication can make a difference through better engagement, access, care, treatment, and recovery for those impacted and at risk. More importantly, this collection seeks to highlight the social justice dimensions of the issue by attending to mental health disparities as exemplified in differences rooted in inequalities (e.g., inequities in minority and marginalized populations’ access to providers, quality of care received, insurance, and discrimination in clinical and social settings; Institute of Medicine, 2002). Underscoring the intersectionality with global contexts addressing migration, war, violence, and climate change that are characterized by enduring mental health disparities stemming from displacement, poverty, and increased stressors associated with anxiety and uncertainty, the need for such a collection is highlighted now more than ever in the scope of those impacted: about two thirds of those affected globally are unable to receive the care they need.

The WHO’s (2024) theme, “mental health is a universal human right” focuses on the lack of awareness, stigma, and discrimination that challenge social inclusion and access to quality care for disadvantaged populations. The call for this collection is guided by the belief that an examination of communication and mental health has the potential to address the disparities posed by mental health risks through shaping how and by whom treatment is accessed and the quality of care received to better address the gamut of contexts in which mental health communication is manifested, operationalized, and programmatically conceptualized. By highlighting the need for addressing global disparities alongside the context in this domain, this proposed text will foreground communication and mental health from the perspective of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. In this regard, the call for a domain-specific focus on communication and mental health (Jorm, 2015), can contribute to the development of interventions and assessments that specifically target mental health contexts, conditions, populations, and intervention goals.

Goal of the Collection:

In light of the above, I hope through this proposed collection to present an overview of the thematic and content directions that define the dimensions of this burgeoning field to fill a necessary and urgent gap for researchers, educators, policy-makers, practitioners, graduate students, and those affected by the crisis. The collection is guided by the spirit of the inquiry: How can mental health communication help identify, inform, and raise awareness of the global contexts, challenges, and disparities inherent in this domain to mitigate stigma, improve awareness, facilitate treatment access, and promote utilization of programmatic benefits by those who need it most?

Format and Approaches:

Contributions can employ multimethod approaches (e.g., reviews of the literature, conceptual and theoretical pieces, and original studies) and examine a diversity of contexts to offer innovative, critical, and impactful insights. I look forward to receiving proposals from scholars utilizing a wide range of theoretical frameworks. Contributions can exemplify strategic health communication in organizational/ workplace, interpersonal/family, digital/mediated, and environmental/climate change settings to inform program development and evidence-based interventions.

Contributions can pertain to (but are not limited to) the following themes related to communication and mental health:

Collaborative mental health decision-making in clinical and rehabilitation contexts
E-health, including social media, computer-mediated support groups, and online mental health communication contexts
Mental health literacy as an independent domain of inquiry alongside health literacy
Popular culture moments, celebrity disclosures and media representation of mental health
Mental health communication pertaining to displaced communities, incarcerated individuals, older adults, those living with addiction
Stigma management in mental health communication including prejudice and discrimination (e.g. veterans with PTSD)
Mental health communication in challenging diagnoses, treatment, or survivorship (e.g., cancer)
Mental health communication as a public health crisis (e.g., through pandemics and emerging health risks)
Family communication environments in mental health contexts
Interpersonal mental health communication contexts such as those pertaining to caregiver challenges or home healthcare situations
Celebrity mental health advocacy
Mental health patient-provider communication in clinical settings
Communication and mental health in survivorship and vulnerable populations (e.g., those who have experienced domestic and sexual violence)
Communicative constitution of mental health in workplace environments (e.g., work-life balance; diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI) and organizational contexts (e.g., in navigating crises, precarious work)
Communication of disparities associated with access and representation in structural domains such as mental health insurance, policy initiatives, and medical coverage
Communication and exposure to and impact of trauma and/or traumatic events on mental health
Communication and digital media/therapeutics for mental health interventions for underserved communities
Communication and barriers to mental health and well-being from the perspective of disclosure and privacy management (e.g., supportive conditions for disclosure, strategies, protections)
Mental health communication pertaining to mediated/digital representation of those living with mental illness (e.g., in movies, popular culture)
Communicative opportunities for crafting agency (e.g., during transitions in health, illness, recovery; mind/body boundaries in chronic pain; social liminality by immigrants)
Communicative constitution of, best practices in, and implications of collaborative partnerships and opportunities with mental health community organizations and advocates

[Tentative] Anticipated Timeline:

May 30, 2024: 100-word synopsis due

December 1, 2024: Full chapter submission deadline for accepted contributions

April 1, 2025: Revised final manuscripts due

For queries, feel free to contact Vinita Agarwal vxagarwal@salisbury.edu

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: Chapter Proposals for Communication and Mental Health in Global Contexts: Opportunities for Transformation, Representation, and Social Justice [Working Title]

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