Defend Social Health

The Defend Social Health committee defines and defends a science- and humanities-based national agenda to promote and protect the public’s mental health and foster our collective agency, efficacy, wellbeing, and trust (our “social health”). We imagine all people flourishing together.  Our agenda addresses the social drivers of health, mental health, and wellbeing to develop healthy foundations for psychological capacity and capability and extends to addressing emotional suffering, mental illness, and substance use.  It gives priority to the challenging and alienating social conditions we face such as homelessness, economic vulnerability, and endemic violence.  

We are pursuing these priorities through three Working Groups: Data/Science (aiming to fill gaps in the data and science), Policy/Legal (assessing and advancing the best policies and identify the impacts of bad ones to inform legal and political action) and Communications/Advocacy (making these purposes widely understandable and known to the public, media, and decision-makers).