As mental health care providers work to address the needs of individuals in their day-to-day work, it can be difficult to treat mental health challenges without also treating the underlying contributors to those challenges. The Social Determinants of Mental Health (SDOMH) are the non-medical societal factors that influence the mental health outcomes of patients, peers, and clients. These intersecting conditions in which a person is born, in which they age, live, and work, all factor into that person’s health. If clinicians learn how these factors impact engagement in care and how to measure these factors’ effect on patients’ outcomes, then they can utilize more comprehensive and effective treatment strategies to address mental health needs. In this in-depth training series, which will meet once a week for 3 weeks, mental health clinicians will learn how to identify the SDOMH, how to systematically measure for them in clinical practice, and how to connect patients with the appropriate community resources and partners to address their specific mental health needs.
Learning objectives:
1. Describe how the SDOMH impact patients’ mental health, and their access to and engagement in care
2. Discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing tools to measure the SDOMH
3. Describe examples of measurement and assessment tools and how they can be utilized in practice
4. Identify strategies from measurement-based care and trauma-informed care that can aid in integration
5. Develop a plan to integrate SDOMH into practice