Human Services Integration through Social Justice-Based Community Engagement Promoted in New Nonfiction
Never has such a book been modeled with the clarity of Dr. David L. Mount’s service-learning research and emphasis on ensuring community concerns are considered with attention to mitigating the loss of faith in health and human service systems!
Piedmont Triad Region, N.C. – Since early 2003, Dr. David L. Mount has spoken around America messaging beyond the echo chamber that everyday people need opportunities to share their story, speaking victory over the deep roots of learned helplessness. In his new book, The Truth Ain’t Popular: Impediments to Hope, Mount reports on his work with the Maya Angelou Center Health Equity Integration Ambassadors toward addressing health equity through social justice and humanitarian outreach.
In this sweeping work of Mount, the following themes are addressed: (1) There is a need for developing and implementing a community engagement accountability system; (2) Community engagement is least effective when creating and fostering us-them partnerships that maximize the disparity gap while simultaneously diverting attention away from equitable community reinvestment; and (3) Action must be taken to address how sociocultural invalidation, micro-insults, stigma, implicit bias, toxic charity and contradictory relationship building are designed to mask the threat to power and authority.
From her advanced review of this book, Ms. Mara Ramirez makes the point: “Professor Mount points out that the content of our lives has market value beyond the traditional commercial venues, where the everyday person is consistently fighting against a psychological bankruptcy. The implications for human services integration to prosperity echoes a call to stop scapegoating human suffering.” As noted by Ms. Yvonne Bowser: “In many ways, the movement surrounding human services integration to prosperity works to place in the forefront a call to action on behalf of socially, emotionally, and economically oppressed communities, where folk are walking on an increasingly uncertain floor while reconstructing hope and attempting to dream against the noise of a shaky future.”
“Behavioral Health Equity through human services integration, forged in part through legislative and policy solutions, is key to reducing health disparities and promoting good health outcomes across multicultural communities,” said Mount.
For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to www.mindbodyinstitutebeyond.com.
About the Author
Dr. David L. Mount is a treasured social justice advocate, lecturer, writer, community organizer, team builder, professional speaker, and clinical psychologist with specialties in primary care psychology, medical neuropsychology, and medical rehabilitation psychology. Dr. Mount is a sought-after speaker for national meetings and is a winner of mentoring, teaching, and service awards in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and North Carolina. He is well regarded for his work on integrating mind-body mental health and framing health disparities as a human rights campaigner.