From Research to Reality: Exploring Findings, Impact, and the Voices of Experience

In this blog post, we explore recent papers from PLOS Mental Health that demonstrate our dedication to amplifying lived experiences and fostering meaningful change in global mental health communities.

Explore a concise overview of the key research findings, and hear from the editors and authors themselves on why this research is crucial for mental health communities, and how it has the potential to transform the future of mental health on a global scale.

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Psychopathy, psychological distress, and treatment history among perpetrators of intimate partner femicide, homicide, and other violent crimes in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Authors: Martín Hernán Di Marco, Gergő Baranyi, Dabney P. Evans

From the authors:

Differentiating the factors that contribute to pernicious forms of violence, such as femicide, is crucial. In this paper, we aimed to explore the extent to which certain psychological factors or labels could distinguish men who had killed their partners or former partners from other men.

Our study, along with other research, suggests that mental health diagnoses are not so useful in understanding these individuals. Therefore, our efforts should focus on other forms of intervention and prevention, such as individual thought patterns and ameliorating past trauma.”

Since our findings indicate that there are often missed opportunities for intervention with these men prior to the femicide, we hope this paper triggers a discussion about femicide ideation and the assessment focused on the perpetrators. Healthcare professionals could play a crucial role in establishing more robust screening policies regarding intimate partner violence. By enhancing the screening process, we can better identify and intervene with individuals at risk, potentially preventing future tragedies.

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A sudden but prolonged collective trauma: The Ukrainian experience

Authors: Nataliia Frolova and Roxane Cohen Silver

From Editor-in-Chief, Charlene Sunkel:

The authors of this powerful paper describe the ongoing invasion of Ukraine as a ‘hybrid war’, marked by conventional and unconventional tactics, propaganda, and disinformation, that has inflicted severe psychological and physical distress on the population.

The authors explain how the conflict has compounded existing traumas from prior anti-terrorist operations and the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite the intense and direct exposure to violence and hardship, Ukrainians have shown remarkable resilience.

The authors call for comprehensive mental health support to help civilians process their emotions and navigate their new reality and offer insights from the Ukrainian experience related to trauma support in conflict-affected regions. I hope to see more papers understanding resilience in the face of trauma and hope this can help us to develop effective support for individuals with conflict-related trauma.

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COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among mental health professionals in the WHO’s global clinical practice network

Authors: Cary S. Kogan, Dan J. Stein, José A. Garcia-Pacheco, et al.

From lead author, Cary Kogan:

During the COVID-19, our research team seized on the opportunity to contribute to the understanding of the effects of the pandemic on the mental health and practice changes of the 16,000+ mental health professional members of the Global Clinical Practice Network (GCPN), which had been formed to assist with the development and testing of the World Health Organization’s International Classification for Diseases (ICD-11) for mental disorders.

It is well documented that people’s knowledge and attitudes affect their health behaviour. Therefore, one of the research questions raised was whether there were differences in knowledge and attitudes among GCPN members about COVID-19 vaccination. Combined with the politicization of the vaccine efforts in certain countries, there was a concern that some professionals might harbour negative attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine leading to poorer uptake of an effective measure to protect the health of patients and professionals.

Mental health professionals are an important resource for vaccine information for their patients and their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination can influence patients’ decision to get vaccinated as well as their own. We developed a new brief measure of COVID-19 vaccine knowledge and attitudes – the C-VAQ – to examine these issues. The C-VAQ was administered in five languages (Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish).

In addition to providing the field with a simple, brief tool to measure vaccine attitudes, this study revealed some of the key factors associated with positive and negative attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Those mental health professionals with more positive attitudes were more likely to have been vaccinated whereas negative attitudes were associated with greater concerns about the vaccine (e.g. its safety). We also found that younger age, those living in low- and middle-income countries as well as those living in Asian countries were associated with less positive attitudes about the vaccine. Positive attitudes were also associated with living in a country with higher mortality and more stringent public health measures. A surprising 7% of mental health professionals reported that they were not vaccinated despite access at the time of data collection being widely available. These findings highlight those factors that should be considered in the event of future pandemics.

This study demonstrated the power of the GCPN as a resource to quickly learn about attitudes and knowledge in the face of emerging public health emergencies (e.g., effects of climate change, war, pandemics) as well as other mental health practice issues. Our international team will continue to collaborate to address practice-related research questions to advance best practices, learn about regional or local concerns, and test new measures and interventions to improve global mental health.

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Task-shifting or problem-shifting? How lay counselling is redefining mental healthcare

Authors: Liana Chase, Parbati Shrestha, Gaurav Datta, et al.

From Karli Montague-Cardoso, Executive Editor:

This Opinion piece is an international collaboration between academics and practitioners that expresses concerns about the way lay counselling is currently framed. It also suggests how it should be framed moving forward to truly understand and appreciate how lay counselling shapes the mental health field – rather than being something that is simply there to respond to its needs. Although resource availability varies globally and indeed, among the countries of the authors of this piece, the common theme is that all regions need more in terms of mental health care and all regions rely heavily on lay counselling to not only provide more mental health care options, but to provide support systems that are informed by location-specific needs. It’s so important to start the conversation about how we view lay counselling in order to give it the research agenda it needs.

I hope this piece helps trigger the change in framing that the authors call for. We are in such desperate need of more culturally-informed, accessible mental health care support across the world – and unless we have an appropriate perspective and invest the appropriate amount of time and effort into developing these support systems, we risk maintaining or expanding the gaps in mental health care and in some cases, doing more harm than good.

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Reconsidering calling 911: Is it time to set a new standard for mental health crisis response?

Author: Rupinder K. Legha

From Karli Montague-Cardoso, Executive Editor:

This powerful Opinion piece by psychiatrist Rupinder Legha challenges the current standard practices in the US regarding mental health crisis management. It uses heartbreaking case studies to demonstrate some of the risks associated with how mental health crises are handled and how current approaches can breed stigma and prevent help-seeking in the future. Putting mental health crisis management under a strong spotlight like this is of vital importance to the community as it can make the difference between healing and additional harm.

I hope that this piece helps to begin an ongoing conversation that engenders permanent change in the way mental health crises are handled globally. I think it will take a long time for this change to be realized, but we need to start somewhere and this is exactly what Dr Legha is doing with this piece. I hope it encourages others to come forward and challenge current practices to improve mental health outcomes and safety and reduce the stigma associated with help-seeking in many communities.

About PLOS Mental Health

PLOS Mental Health is an inclusive journal addressing challenges and gaps in the field of mental health research, treatment, and care in ways that put the lived experience of individuals and communities first.