How to use this book

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HealthWiki > Promoting Community Mental Health > Introduction > How to use this book

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In this chapter:

 

In this chapter:

• Introduction
• Mental health in our communities
• How to use this book

You can find many self-help resources and books directed at professionals But this book focuses on how community building and community organizing efforts can contribute to mental health We feature groups that have taken action based on their specific community, its needs and strengths We greatly appreciate them and their work, and encourage you to learn more about them from their websites.

Mental health doesn’t divide neatly into sections or chapters; the various issues are totally interrelated. This book includes cross-references to help you find material in different chapters, and includes an index for overarching topics like depression, children’s mental health, and violence, that appear in more than one place.

Adapt this information for your community

This book includes discussions of what community-based organizations have done. It also gives practical examples of how individuals experience, get through, and support each other’s mental health challenges. We hope you’ll find both useful.

One of the prime lessons of community organizing is: Everything is connected. Sometimes as you draw out those interconnections, life can feel overwhelming. Supporting mental health need not feel overwhelming, and we hope this book helps individuals and organizations find and offer support in both small and big ways.

There is no one right way to address mental health and no one strategy that works for everyone. Take the ideas that look most useful and try them out, adapting them along the way to fit your community and situation.

When we share the successful experience of a community group, remember that one of the reasons for their success is that their work is rooted in a specific place, history, and people. Starting where you are and building on your community’s strengths will provide you with a rich source of creative and achievable solutions.

We need your help—tell us how to improve this book!

Hesperian’s book creation process involves gathering feedback from those with experience—in this case, with community-based approaches to addressing mental health—as well as from anyone using this material in any way in their work. Your frank and constructive criticism and feedback will help make future editions better. Stories from your experiences will expand the variety of issues covered and the richness with which they are discussed. Contact us at [email protected] to tell us what you think.

A word on word choices

Hesperian Health Guides believes that language has the power to shape and change hearts and minds. We do our best to use inclusive language that recognizes the value and importance of every individual and community in the struggle to create a more just world. Language changes over time as we create that more inclusive society. Multiple words to describe a condition or group of people are often in use at the same time, and not everyone will choose the same one for themselves or recognize how language has changed at the same time. Understanding the effect of different words and how preferred terms evolve is especially important when describing communities who face persistent injustice. To honor and respect our organizational partners in this book, we have written about them and their work using the words they use on their websites and in their other materials. We hope the language choices found here reflect our common commitment to promoting community mental health.

This page was updated:18 Apr 2025