Community leading the research: partnering in science for youth mental health equity

Social influencers of health, including poverty, unmet social needs, lack of access to mental health care, and structural racism, perpetuate youth mental health disparities. Our existing mental health system is designed to address individual cases and perpetuates disparities because of inadequate funding and workforce challenges, including lack of mental health professionals of color. In parallel, interventions research has largely utilized existing clinical infrastructures, does not engage diverse populations, and does not provide real-world outcomes. Community-based participatory research methods are 1 approach to addressing community-identified research needs but often require academic principal investigators (PIs).