Training Psychologists to Address Social Determinants of Mental Health

Social determinants of health, such as poverty, lower parental education, parental unemployment, and racism, are critical but often overlooked factors that contribute to racial inequities in mental health. The effects of social determinants on mental health persist despite positive intentions of individual professionals within psychology. A new approach is required to address mental health inequities by training psychologists to understand how power, privilege, and oppression relate to racial disparities in mental health. Currently, many psychology training programs do not provide instruction related to the social determinants of mental health. We advocate for a shift in the paradigm of psychology training programs to prepare psychologists to address social determinants of mental health. We present 2 approaches to support this shift in psychology training programs-cultural humility and community-based participatory research-and describe concrete examples of how these approaches can facilitate psychologists' active involvement in disrupting mental health inequities.