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Since its founding, American Orthopsychiatric Association (AOA) has been at the forefront of working at the intersection of mental health and social justice. In Mental Health and Social Change: 50 Years of Orthopsychiatry (Shore & Mannino, 1975), former organization president and journal editor Milton Shore and Fortune Mannino wrote that the association had consistently held a philosophy that included (a) a commitment to an interdisciplinary approach in the study of mental health problems and the development of mental health programs; (b) an emphasis on prevention as well as treatment; (c) the integration of the clinical and the social; (d) a major focus on the social scene and its interweaving with mental health problems in individuals within society; and (e) an avoidance of dilettantism, superficiality, and well-meaning generalizations through a commitment to high-quality research, thoughtful analysis of mental health issues, and high professional standards of practice in all areas of mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Mental health needs have been recognized as a priority area by the World Health Organization (WHO), and a Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan (2013) was proposed to address the needs of millions of people around the world. Concerns have been raised about the degree to which current global efforts are appropriate and sufficient for promoting mental health (MH), reducing the risk for common MH disorders, and addressing the needs of individuals experiencing mental illness. This commentary expands on the presentation of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice's Task Force on Global Mental Health at the 16th Biennial Conference of the Society for Community Research and Action, held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada June 21-24, 2017, "Building Capacity to Address Mental Illness and Emotional Distress in Low-Resource Settings and Among Refugee Populations." Utilizing a socioecological framework, this commentary offers a call to action in addressing global mental health by emphasizing the need for greater investments in wellness promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery. Importantly, such efforts need to value local knowledge and culture, harness natural existing resources and assets, and ensure equitable distribution of key resources for MH. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This article examines the associations among environmental factors, healthy behaviors, and depression in a sample of adults with major disabilities. When sociodemographics and type and level of disability were controlled, environmental factors (e.g., access to care, contacts with friends, and experience of assault) and risk behaviors (e.g., tobacco use, marijuana use, and physical exercise) were significant correlates of depression. Public health practice and research implications are discussed.

Mothers and clinicians, both of whom play key roles in securing mental health services for children, have been found to differ in their ratings of children's adjustment. While this finding is confirmed by the present study, ratings made by social workers based on a structured interview with mothers prior to their children's kindergarten entry indicate a number of significant relationships with measures of children's school and behavioral adjustment four years later.

Interviews with parents of 1,726 special education students yielded reports of stress that varied significantly by type of disability and by maternal education level; family involvement in the special education process also varied significantly by level of education. Clinically important differences in family perceptions and coping mechanisms are described and the need for better child care provisions and involvement of low-income parents in the education process is highlighted.