A new book co-edited by York University Professor and Chair, School of Health Policy & Management Marina Morrow explores critical research approaches for social justice in the practice of mental health.
A launch event for the book Critical Inquiries for Social Justice in Mental Health takes place Sept. 28 from 6 to 9pm at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252 Bloor St. W.
Edited by Morrow and Lorraine Halinka Malcoe, Critical Inquiries for Mental Health demonstrates why and how theory matters for knowledge production, policy, and practice in mental health, and it offers a multitude of critical research approaches for producing knowledge beyond the biomedical and neoliberal status quo.
This new collection applies a range of theories and methodologies to re-imagine mental health research in ways that counter the dominance of biomedicine, fosters self-determination among people who experience mental distress, and produce knowledge for socially-just mental health praxis, said Morrow.
York University Professor Marina Morrow
Contributors delineate approaches for decolonizing mental health, discursive methods for illuminating the politics of mental health policy and practice across the gender spectrum and diversity of people who experience emotional distress, and media analyses that illustrate the dynamic workings of power, including the power to resist.
"We intend Critical Inquiries for Social Justice in Mental Health to speak to multiple audiences – to people who have lived experiences of psychiatrization and who may be working as advocates on the front lines of the mental health system, or outside of it; to scholars and graduate students who are developing alternatives to dominant approaches in mental health; and to practitioners and policy actors who are working to create more socially just mental health systems and supports based on self-determination for people with mental distress/difference," said Morrow.