Psychiatrist

Spring 2023

Sandy Steingard, MD Editor-In-Chief, Community MH Journal

Volume 39, Number 1

The Community Mental Health Journal

It remains an honor to serve as Editor-in-Chief of AACP’s journal, Community Mental Health Journal, and I continue to feel humbled by this work. As a reminder, we publish eight issues a year and access to the journal is free with AACP membership!

We have had some changes in our leadership this past year. Robert Cotes has joined us as a Lead Editor and Sarah Vinson has moved to our Editorial Board. They have both been valuable partners in this work as are our other Lead Editors, Jessica Isom, Nev Jones, and Rebecca Miller.

Several initiatives are planned for the next couple of years. We began a series called, “Activist & Community Perspectives on Mental Health/Psychosocial Disability from the Global South”, and published our first papers in July, 2022 written by Kabale Benon Kitafuna, an activist from Uganda who wrote both an empiric paper on the history of activism in his country as well as a more personal account of his own experiences. We are hoping to get more submissions for this series in the coming year.

Later this year, we will publish a special issue edited by Amir Tal and Mark Salzer, “Impact of COVID-19 on the Lives of People with Mental Illnesses: Theory, Research and Practice.” The series will include international submissions that address the effect of the pandemic on the daily lives and activities of individuals who have autism spectrum disorders or more several forms of psychiatric disorder.

Another special issue is underway, “Recovery at 30: Emancipation, Cooptation, or the End of an Era?” The recovery movement has, in many ways, been foundational to the mission of modern community mental health but it seemed time to critically examine the concept as we approached its 30-year anniversary.

Finally, I spent a lovely afternoon talking with Angela Lui who is leading the Community Psychiatry Podcast. We discussed the journal and we hope to use this format to highlight articles in the future.

The journal remains busy. Our submissions have doubled since my tenure began in 2020. I am grateful for the interest in our journal and I am indebted to our many reviewers. Please consider joining us! Reviewers are the unsung heroes of the academic publishing world and I could not publish this journal without them. You can contact me at my email if you are interested in learning more about how you can get involved.