“Psychologists recognize that fairness and justice entitle all persons to access to and benefit from the contributions of psychology and to equal quality in the processes, procedures, and services being conducted by psychologists…” (from Principle D, Justice of the American Psychological Association’s [APA] Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct, 2017).

As professionals in psychology, we are ethically obligated to seek out ways to serve our communities and promote equity in mental health, which may be promoted through community outreach efforts (Ramirez, 2018). Community outreach describes diverse means of extending clinical service beyond the traditional view of clinical psychology offerings within a community setting. It’s moving out of the office and into our communities’ environments, whether virtually or physically. Outreach efforts contribute to health promotion and prevention of mental illness by increasing health literacy, teaching communities about resources available to them, and working against barriers to accessing mental health care. Clients navigate numerous systemic and social barriers in order to receive clinical care; community outreach extends service to those who otherwise may not make it to our offices.

Broadly, goals of community outreach include the following:

    ●          Promoting and increasing health literacy on specific topics

    ●          Responding to community-level events (e.g., pandemic stress, wildfires)

    ●          Empower communities by giving them tools to better manage their health

    ●          Creating awareness of health inequities you have observed as a health professional

    ●          Reducing stigma related to mental health and informing communities of resources available

    ●          Disseminating research findings and implications or making recommendations

    ●          Building and/or strengthening community and organization partnerships

    ●          Meeting people where they are (Ramirez, 2018).

Furthermore, community outreach and engagement balance the unequal power that exists in clinical care in the sense that professionals move into a community-based environment, outside of their traditional healthcare setting. The importance of this is related to not only logistical access but also reducing stigma and countering the perspective that psychological professionals exclusively sit in stuffy offices and practice psychoanalysis.

Outside of clinical practice, psychological science is largely disseminated through peer-review publications. Kools et al. (2018) pointed out a system of gatekeeping, in which researchers’ career growth is largely dependent on publishing in academic journals, which are accessible only to fellow researchers and read to support future research. In addition to affordability barriers, scientific language is not easily digestible to those who have not received training in reading scientific materials. Though a shift in valuing other models of dissemination is not easily attainable, it is clear that giving psychological knowledge away to the very communities affected by the research is a powerful way to balance social power.

I encourage you to assess the ways in which you have learned to value the dissemination of scientific knowledge, perhaps valuing professional over community-based methods. Consider the potential impact of disseminating your research and knowledge from the field broadly with community members, stakeholders, and decision-makers.

Make it Happen

The Public Education Committee focuses on giving psychology away by educating the public via several methods (Ramirez, 2021). We outline below action steps to give psychology away through community outreach and engagement.  We invite you to explore options that appeal to your interests.

• Offering trainings or workshops on specific mental health topics. Reach out to community-serving organizations (e.g., community or cultural centers, libraries, universities) and pitch specific topics or offer to create trainings based on specific organization needs.
• Presenting your research to populations represented in your sample, special interest groups, policymakers, or advocacy groups.
• Creating or distributing existing psychoeducational materials, such as handouts from the APA Help Center.
• Being present at a health fair or other health/wellness event distributing psychoeducational materials and information about community resources.
• Advocating for community spaces to share available psychoeducational materials.
• Being available to speak to news media outlets on areas you hold expertise related to significant events and social concerns.
• Writing an op-ed on a topic of interest, passion, or advocacy (see APA’s feature on how to write an op-ed; Lee, 2018). For example, see what our colleagues from Pacific University and the Michigan Psychological Association wrote for The Washington Post.

References

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended effective June 1, 2010, and January 1, 2017). http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.html

Kools, F. R. W., Mirali, S., Holst-Bernal, S., Nijhof, S. L., Cavalli, G., & Grandner, M. A. (2018). Publications are not the finish line: Focusing on societal rather than publication impact.  Frontiers in Medicine. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2018.00314

Lee, K. (2018, February). How to write an op-ed. Monitor on Psychology, 49(2). http://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/02/write-op-ed

Ramirez, S. (2018, July). Giving psychology away. Public Education Committee Reports/Updates. https://opa.memberclicks.net/public-education-committee-reports#GivingPsychologyAway

Zaman, A., Fiore, E., & Comrie, C. (2022, January 28). Daniel Snyder might be about to rename his team, but he still has to acknowledge the harm the old name caused [Editorial]. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/28/daniel-snyder-might-be-about-rename-his-team-he-still-has-acknowledge-harm-old-name-caused/