Mental Health and Psychosocial Support For Marginalized and Underrepresented Groups Toolkit
Introduction Key Definitions Terminology Literature Review Frameworks Ensuring Inclusion Tools, Resources, and Annexes Group Pull-outs
Terminology Specific to MHPSS and Marginalized and Underrepresented Groups
The following Key Concepts outline general contextual elements that can affect all stages—design, implementation, and evaluation—of MHPSS programming with youth from marginalized and underrepresented groups. Each should be interpreted with consideration of the local context as part of an ongoing process of addressing culture bias, developing sufficient understanding of local MHPSS needs and resources, and learning from local knowledge on social-structural dimensions of mental health and psychosocial well-being.
- Historical discrimination and exclusion based on identity as a barrier: Historical discrimination and exclusion based on identity has resulted in mental health services being inaccessible, unavailable, and at times, unsafe for marginalized and underrepresented groups. When working with a marginalized or underrepresented population, it is important to explore how discrimination has played a role in the population’s ability to access MHPSS services and whether they have been excluded from accessing services based on their identity.
- Overgeneralization of marginalized and underrepresented communities: Membership in a marginalized or underrepresented community is determined by something that everyone has in common; it should not negate the fact that marginalized and underrepresented groups are also diverse (Baylor University 2021), varying in age, race, sex, gender identity, language, religion, ethnic, Indigenous or social origin, disability, and barriers they face (Baylor University 2021).
- Distress expression and mental health literacy: Distress expression of mental health needs often varies depending on language and cultural and gender norms. If MHPSS professionals do not understand these nuances, they may develop care plans that do not address the actual needs of the individual. More importantly, most people do not describe their challenges in clinical terms or the framing of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, especially in LMICs and conflict-affected areas (Baylor University 2021).
- Structural vulnerability: Structural vulnerability is the condition of being at high risk for challenges around health, mental health, and well-being outcomes by interfacing with systems that treat people inequitably. Structural vulnerability is mediated by intersectional identities and modified by societal contexts of socioeconomic, political, and cultural gradients of power. Structural vulnerability drives health inequities by reducing the likelihood of opportunities to access or generate health, mental health, and well-being resources and amplifies exposures to violence and risks of harm.
- Social suffering: Social suffering refers to the political, economic, and institutional causes of human suffering and the ways these forms of power influence response to social challenges. Social suffering alludes to the ways suffering takes place collectively or as a social experience.