Perez Lilian G, Cardenas Cristian, Blagg Tara, Wong Eunice C
RAND, Santa Monica, California (Perez, Wong); Pardee RAND Graduate School, Santa Monica, California (Cardenas, Blagg).
Psychiatr Serv. 2025 Jan 1;76(1):61-81. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.20240077. Epub 2024 Oct 2.
Faith communities are increasingly providing services to address the mental health needs of their congregations and communities. However, many feel limited in their capacity to address serious illness and experience challenges to collaborating with the mental health sector. To inform the development of faith community-mental health sector partnerships, the authors conducted a scoping review to assess the characteristics and evidence base of partnership approaches to addressing mental health needs.
A search of four databases identified peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2023 on faith community-mental health sector partnerships in the United States.
In total, 37 articles representing 32 unique partnerships were reviewed. Most partnerships (N=19) used multicomponent approaches, particularly involving training the faith community (N=18), mental health education for the broader community (N=14), and direct counseling (N=11). Many partnerships (N=14) focused on African American communities. Partnerships that included an evaluation component (N=20) showed promising findings for improving mental health symptoms, mental health literacy, stigma, and referrals, among other outcomes. Several articles reported facilitators (e.g., support from faith leaders and reciprocal relationships and equal power) and barriers (e.g., limited time and funding and differing interests and attitudes) to developing partnerships.
The findings highlight how faith communities can be a critical partner in providing services across the continuum of mental health care and reveal the need for more rigorous evaluations of the effectiveness, feasibility, and sustainability of these partnerships. The results also identify strategies that may facilitate the development and strengthening of future faith community-mental health partnerships.
宗教团体越来越多地提供服务，以满足其会众和社区的心理健康需求。然而，许多宗教团体认为自己在应对严重疾病方面能力有限，并且在与心理健康部门合作时面临挑战。为了为宗教团体与心理健康部门的伙伴关系发展提供信息，作者进行了一项范围综述，以评估应对心理健康需求的伙伴关系方法的特征和证据基础。
检索四个数据库，识别2010年至2023年间发表的关于美国宗教团体与心理健康部门伙伴关系的同行评审文章。
共审查了代表32个独特伙伴关系的37篇文章。大多数伙伴关系（N = 19）采用多成分方法，特别是涉及培训宗教团体（N = 18）、为更广泛社区提供心理健康教育（N = 14）和直接咨询（N = 11）。许多伙伴关系（N = 14）关注非裔美国人社区。包含评估成分的伙伴关系（N = 20）在改善心理健康症状、心理健康素养、耻辱感和转诊等结果方面显示出有前景的发现。几篇文章报告了发展伙伴关系的促进因素（如宗教领袖的支持、互惠关系和平等权力）和障碍（如时间和资金有限、利益和态度不同）。
研究结果突出了宗教团体如何能够成为提供连续心理健康护理服务的关键伙伴，并揭示了对这些伙伴关系的有效性、可行性和可持续性进行更严格评估的必要性。研究结果还确定了可能促进未来宗教团体与心理健康伙伴关系发展和加强的策略。
