CLASP Celebrates Mental Health Awareness Month 

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. CLASP’s mental health work centers on systems and policy change with an explicit focus on how race and ethnicity affect a person’s interactions with systems and services. Throughout the month, we’ll explore the role of historical and cultural trauma, the importance of lived experience, how to create more equitable access to mental health resources, and the importance of access to a full continuum of mental health care. We hope you’ll help us reimagine what the mental and behavioral health systems could look like to better serve people living in households with low income.

Here’s a rundown of our activities:

Tweet Chat

Join us for a Twitter chat on May 6 at 3:00 EDT! We’ll be discussing mental health in communities of color. Follow along using #ReframeMentalHealth.

Webinars 

• Join us May 20 at 1:00 ET for a webinar entitled, “Listening to Young Adult Parents: The Multigenerational Making of Mental Health.” We’ll hear about qualitative reports from young parents on practice, program, and policy solutions to address their mental health needs. 

Learn more and register here!

• Join us May 27 at 3:00 ET for a webinar entitled, “How the History of Racism is Negatively Affecting our Response to the Overdose Epidemic in All Communities.” We will take a closer look at barriers in communities of color, which often lie beyond the realm of behavioral health. Our discussion will frame those historical and legislative constraints and explore how we can adapt the current response.

Learn more and register here!

Recent CLASP Mental Health Publications 

• Advancing Racial Equity in Maternal Mental Health Policy 
• Mental and Behavioral Health System Fixes during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond 
• Maryland’s Medicaid telehealth law opens new opportunities for young people 
• Presumptive Eligibility: Critical tool for protecting young people during the pandemic 

Recent CLASP Legislative Mental Health Work 

• The Health Equity and Accountability Act (HEAA) was introduced April 29. Isha Weerasinghe, senior policy analyst at CLASP, was the lead for the Mental Health title, Title VI.