New York, NY – Small community organizations are often the best equipped to address local mental health needs, however the grant funding they receive often doesn’t cover their basic operating expenses. A new paper in Journal of Public Mental Health, lead authored by Professor Victoria Stanhope, asserts that such organizations are often hamstrung by a lack of investment in organizational infrastructure.
“Investment in organizations that target mental health inequalities from government and charities is often insufficient and only reimburses programmatic costs,” writes Dr. Stanhope, with co-authors Mimi Choy-Brown, PhD ’18, Meredith Doherty, MSW ’10, Julian Cohen-Serrins, PhD ’24, Daniel Baslock, PhD ’24 and Professor Ramesh Raghavan. “Organizational overhead and administrative costs that may include infrastructure (e.g. health information technology), staff time to oversee, coordinate, communicate and provide support for service quality and workforce development are not prioritized within the limited funding available.”
The authors use insights from implementation science to explore how funders can better support such organizations and improve client outcomes. That burgeoning field is focused on identifying the best ways to put evidence-based practices into action in real world settings so they can truly help people.
“Implementation science shows us that programs cannot be well implemented unless organizations are healthy,” says Dr. Stanhope. “Our hope is to inform private and government funders of the importance of supporting general operating expenses for community based organizations addressing mental health inequities.”
Read the article, titled “Promoting mental health equality by investing in organizations: lessons from implementation science,” online ahead of print.
About NYU Silver School of Social Work
Founded in 1960 and renowned for a strong tradition of excellence in direct social work practice and dedication to social justice, NYU Silver has provided rigorous training to more than 20,000 social work practitioners and leaders in every area of the field, making it the leading destination for students who want to become innovative practitioners at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of social work practice. The School has four campuses in the heart of New York City, Rockland County, Westchester County, and Shanghai.
