This book shows therapists how they can impact their communities by engaging their fellow citizens in addressing broad-based health and social problems. The greatest untapped resources for improving our health and social well-being are the knowledge, energy, and first-hand wisdom of the individuals, families, and communities who have dealt with challenges in their everyday lives. Mental health professionals can learn how to leverage these relationships to enact broader, community-wide change, using practices that fall outside of traditional methods of mental health service delivery.
This book presents insights from the authors' two decades of work in the citizen health care model, in which they have partnered with leaders from a wide range of communities on initiatives designed to improve health and remove social barriers. Readers will learn big-picture strategies for identifying and developing community-level initiatives, from disease prevention to broader cultural challenges, as well as common problems that arise when doing this work.
Includes in-depth discussions of successful, real-world programs co-created by therapists and community members, including:
- diabetes education
- anti-smoking campaigns
- political depolarization
- police interactions
William J. Doherty, PhD, is a professor in the department of family social science at the University of Minnesota (UMN), where he directs the Citizen Professional Center and the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project. In his career he has combined clinical innovations, including the specialties of medical family therapy and discernment counseling for couples on the brink of divorce, with a wide range of community engagement projects. In 2016 he cofounded Braver Angels, a national initiative to counteract polarization and restore the fraying social fabric of the nation. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Family Therapy Association.
Tai J. Mendenhall, PhD, is a medical family therapist and professor in the couple and family therapy program at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in the department of family social science. He is an adjunct professor in UMN's department of family medicine and community health. Dr. Mendenhall is also the director of UMN’s Medical Reserve Corps’ Mental Health Disaster-Response Teams, and the associate director of UMN’s Citizen Professional Center. He works actively in the conduct of integrated, and collaborative, family health care, training, and outreach. His efforts in community-based participatory research and citizen health care initiatives address public health issues.
