The Center for Trauma and Mental Health

We’re redefining trauma

The mental health system in the United States is crisis-oriented and designed to diagnose and treat patients during acute episodes of mental illness. This limits our definition of trauma, the resources we dedicate to prevention, and our ability to identify marginalized populations and intervene before psychological distress occurs or worsens.

We’re taking a public health approach to understanding trauma. Discrimination, financial stress, living and working in unsafe neighborhoods, and climate change have significant impacts on health and well-being. These stressors are a spectrum – some days they may be mild, some days they may be significant – and the accumulated effect over a lifetime has significant health implications. There is an urgent need for a public health strategy that  rethinks how we address the full spectrum of these stressful and traumatic events in order to prevent, diagnose, and treat the progression to negative mental health sequelae.

The Center for Trauma and Mental Health aims to fulfill that need. We bring together an interdisciplinary group of mental health and substance use researchers from across Boston University School of Public Health and collaborate with, clinicians, policy-makers, employers, and schools to focus on the mental and behavioral health consequences of  traumas and stressors .  The Center is interested in projects addressing the systems and structures that support mental health, building community and individual resilience before and after traumatic events, adapting successful interventions to a new context, and working to support the mental health of particularly vulnerable populations, including veterans, children, adolescents, caregivers, housing insecure populations, and those experiencing the justice system. The Center for Trauma and Mental Health applies a health equity lens to our work, with social justice serving as a vital element of our collective efforts.

Key Competencies

Businesses feel the impact of poor mental health systems and treatment.  Employee sick days, lost productivity, and high turnover dramatically impact a business’ ability to accomplish goals and impact their bottom line. Integrating a public health approach to improving mental health is big business, with technology companies taking the lead. Continued innovation in digital health, product development, and policy are the future.  Continual threats to health, economic stability, and infrastructure are an inevitable result of not taking a public health approach to improving mental health.

The pandemic brought into stark contrast what we have known for years: poor mental health impacts all of us. As we work to improve the health conditions, particularly our most vulnerable, there is a critical need for initiatives such as those defined here at the Center for Trauma and Mental Health, which will produce actionable research for understanding and preventing trauma and poor mental health.

Let’s work together to inform positive change

How businesses can get involved (and why your involvement is vital)

A substantial amount of academic research related to mental health takes a clinical and emergency-based perspective. This is why the Center for Trauma and Mental Health is seeking businesses to collaborate with us and help define a healthier tomorrow.

Meet the team