Introducing Nature Mental Health: Equity in Mental Health

Sponsored by Springer Nature

Recorded on 10/12/2022
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 283

While outlining the forthcoming journal Nature Mental Health, the editorial team wanted to build equity, awareness, and transparency into its framework. As Chief Editor Dr. Rebecca “Bek” Cooney notes, the journal’s scope underpins mental health as a human right in order to spotlight the lack of understanding and structural support for mental health issues. How can a journal intentionally establish itself as an advocate for mental health and social change?

In this second episode of the four-part series, Bek digs into equity in mental health. She highlights the difference between equity and equality in mental health programs—an “equal” approach doesn’t account for the racial, economic, and social discrepancies that impact care. In addition, Bek discusses the journal’s goal of including those with lived experiences and its positive effects on research quality. Further, she closes with strategies on how to go beyond goodwill gestures by encouraging dialogue among readership and ensuring transparency in editorial decisions around language and self-corrections.

About the guest:

Rebecca Cooney headshot

Rebecca Cooney, PhD
Chief Editor
Nature Mental Health

Rebecca “Bek” Cooney is the Chief Editor of Nature Mental Health. Before joining the Nature Group in 2022, she served as the North American Executive Editor of The Lancet and the Assistant Editor of The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. She received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford University in 2007, where her work focused on the neural basis of mood and anxiety disorders and rumination in depression using fMRI. She subsequently trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University, where she studied inhibitory function in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Her research interests include a broad range of topics in psychology and psychiatry, but particularly, mood disorders, clinical trials, and public health policy. Bek is based in the New York office.

Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:

Check out our previous series with Springer Nature:
– Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIM) & Ethics
– Practical Sustainability
– Ethics and Integrity in Educational Contexts
– The Path Toward Open Science
– Understanding and Implementing Cybersecurity

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