Open AccessAdvancing Health Equity in Digital Mental Health: Lessons From Medical Anthropology for Global Mental Health
Author(s) -
Ellen Elizabeth Kozelka,
Janis H. Jenkins,
Elizabeth CarpenterSong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
jmir mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2368-7959
DOI - 10.2196/28555
Subject(s) - mental health , global mental health , equity (law) , digital health , health care , health equity , context (archaeology) , global health , mental illness , psychology , public relations , nursing , medicine , psychiatry , public health , political science , paleontology , law , biology
Digital health engenders the opportunity to create new effective mental health care models—from substance use recovery to suicide prevention. Anthropological methodologies offer a unique opportunity for the field of global mental health to examine and incorporate contextual mental health needs through attention to the lived experience of illness; engagement with communities; and knowledge of context, structures, and systems. Attending to these diverse mental health needs and conditions as well as the limitations of digital health will allow global mental health researchers, practitioners, and patients to collaboratively create new models for care in the service of equitable, accessible recovery.