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Dissertation
Care not control: toward mental health justice in the United States
Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.), Drexel University
Jul 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00011212
Abstract
This dissertation critically examines the structural, cultural, and ideological foundations of the United States' mental health system and proposes a multidimensional framework for mental health justice that reimagines the system as one that promotes mental health and wellbeing, rather than one that responds to pathology. Through a multidisciplinary review, original framework development, and qualitative interviews with participants impacted by the public mental health system, this study highlights the pervasive inequities, coercive practices, and systemic barriers that perpetuate avoidable suffering. The Mental Health Justice Framework, organized around five core dimensions -- wellbeing, power, democratic participation, intersectionality, and healing and liberation -- offers a new lens through which to reimagine mental health care as participatory, person-centered, and rights-based. Participant experiences affirm these core dimensions, and narratives reveal how systemic barriers, lack of meaningful participation, and enduring discrimination inflict avoidable suffering. Additionally, the research provides a practical guide for mental health practitioners, mental health service organizations, and mental health policy makers to apply the presented research into mental health practice. By centering the expertise of both service providers and service users, this dissertation provides a roadmap to transform mental health policies, practices, and institutions to promote healing, human dignity, and collective flourishing.
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Details
- Title
- Care not control
- Creators
- Kathleen Eastman Fox
- Contributors
- Sandra L. Bloom (Advisor) - Drexel University, Health Management and Policy
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University
- Number of pages
- xi, 167 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health; Health Management and Policy; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991022135343304721