Integrating mental health connections in community academic partnerships.

Abstract

Community academic partnerships (CAPs) connect students to interprofessional collaborations and expand clinical experiences beyond traditional settings. Serious and persistent mental health problems represent an important action area within population health. Mental health disorders across the lifespan are often co-morbid with substance use, poverty, and community violence. This article describes CAPs in a community course where students impact vulnerable populations while learning new roles and responsibilities. The process explains student engagement with the community, and using best practices for care of community, population health concerns, and mental health and well-being. We initiate and maintain collaborative relationships that guide culturally sensitive responses to health and illness. Four well-established CAPs' exemplars describe the interventions and outcomes. Students successfully integrated a variety of health promotion and mental health interventions within the CAPS clinical environments. The Socio-Ecological framework is used to articulate student outcomes. The CAPs are a dynamic system requiring ongoing maintenance and response to evolving epidemiological issues, such as increased incidence of alterations in mental health. The educational innovation provides an opportunity for students to understand aspects of holistic health in a community environment as they intervene at individual, relationship, community, and societal levels.