International Mental Health Association
International Mental Health Association
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    • South Asian Mental Health
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  • More
    • Welcome
    • Our Work
      • Afghan Empowerment
      • Black Mental Health
      • South Asian Mental Health
      • Partner With Us
      • Past Projects
    • About Us
      • Our Story
      • Our Team
      • How We Work
      • FAQ's & Reports
    • Our Impact
    • Connect
      • Blog
      • Donate
      • Get in Touch
      • Join Our Team
  • Welcome
  • Our Work
    • Afghan Empowerment
    • Black Mental Health
    • South Asian Mental Health
    • Partner With Us
    • Past Projects
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Team
    • How We Work
    • FAQ's & Reports
  • Our Impact
  • Connect
    • Blog
    • Donate
    • Get in Touch
    • Join Our Team

We can't talk about global mental health without talking about colonialism, systems of oppression, history and trauma.


Ryka Christopher

Our Key Frameworks

Community-led & Decolonizing

Community-led & Decolonizing

Community-led & Decolonizing

Strengths-Based

Community-led & Decolonizing

Community-led & Decolonizing

Trauma-Informed

Community-led & Decolonizing

Trauma-Informed

Community-led & Decolonizing

In the wake of modern colonialism and the battle against neocolonialism, committing to decolonizing practices is essential for a healthier world. For us, this framework structures an ever-evolving effort to relearn, resist and rise up together. We do not expect to achieve a perfectly decolonized organization or even project, but are committed to improving during the course of our organizational lifetime. Prioritizing community-led work is an important part of this, as it disrupts typical NGO structures that place the needs of donors and NGO workers ahead of the partner community. 

Strengths-Based

Being founded and led by mental health clinicians has heavily influenced the development of our organization, evident particularly in our choice to center strengths-based practices. Instead of approaching our team and community through deficit-based models common in Western psychology and business, we choose to start with strengths and build from there. We all have room to grow and we find this growth more meaningful when our strengths are recognized and celebrated from Day 1.

Trauma-Informed

From micro to macro, trauma impacts our lives moment-to-moment and society as a whole. Our processes and practices have evolved and continue to evolve through lenses that consider trauma and healing. Ultimately, our goal is to build a healthier world and for this to be possible, recognizing and healing from trauma is essential.

Our Leadership Culture

Flipped Structure

Flipped Structure

Flipped Structure

Lived-Experience

Flipped Structure

Flipped Structure

Collaborative

Flipped Structure

Collaborative

Flipped Structure

Instead of leading from the top/front, our Executive Director & Board of Directors intentionally lead from the ground/back. Like the trunk of a strong tree, Daniel and the Board support the rest of the branches in growing. This aligns with our core frameworks in the following ways; it allows us to decolonize our work processes by flipping the script on power and authority, it centers the strengths of our team and creates a safe space for folks to explore this work on the terms that are healthy for them.

Lived-Experience

From our team to our board to our amazing volunteers, we're proud of the fact that IMHA is 100% powered by lived experience. 

Collaborative

Our Executive Director actively involves our team in planning, decision-making and radical imagining. Our team is full of wise, creative problem-solvers and by working collaboratively, we are able to live up to our values of health and wellbeing while putting our best foot forward for our team and community.

Collaboration > Competition

Our approach to health is collaborative, not competitive.

We view competition for resources in the global mental health arena as an unavoidable consequence of the fields it was founded in and the world as it stands today. Modern psychology and psychiatry have unquestionably shaped "global mental health" and are deeply rooted in Eurocentric, patriarchal, heteronormative ideologies that contribute to white supremacy and global inequity. Modern colonialism has embedded inequity in our systems, from economic to social to environmental and more. As a result, folks attempting to disrupt the global mental health space are faced with the uphill task of resisting these systems in our work, building counter-structures and educating funders about the need for change - all while pursuing health.


For us, disrupting these systems means rejecting competition and committing to a collaborative approach - centering we, not us vs. them. While in the non-profit space it often feels there's not enough to go around, our commitment to wealth redistribution and community-led work allows us to operate from an abundance mindset. We invite folks interested in pursuing health through collaboration to reach out, we're always glad to hear from our global mental health colleagues and see no one as competitors.


We maintain an Open Door Policy and are honored and privileged to work in this space.


The International Mental Health Association is a tax-exempt public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(C)(3)

Copyright © International Mental Health Association 2022

All Rights Reserved.

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