Beyond Symptoms, Merging Data, Ethics and Social Determinants in Mental Health Treatment

Despite growing recognition of the role social determinants play in shaping mental health outcomes, many clinical settings still focus narrowly on symptom reduction without systematically addressing the broader social context of patients’ lives. Measurement-Based Care (MBC) is the routine use of validated tools to monitor symptoms and guide treatment decisions. MBC has been shown to improve outcomes in mental health care by enabling more timely and tailored interventions (Lewis et al., 2019; Fortney et al., 2017). However, traditional MBC practices often overlook critical social factors such as housing instability, food insecurity, discrimination, and access to care, all of which can influence mental health and treatment response (Alegría et al., 2018; Compton & Shim, 2015). By integrating Social Determinants of Mental Health (SDoMH) into MBC workflows, this may offer an opportunity to deliver more holistic, equitable, and effective care, particularly for historically marginalized populations. This webinar addresses the urgent need to equip mental health professionals with practical strategies for merging clinical and social data, guided by evidence-based tools and culturally responsive practices (Shim et al., 2014; Lewis-Fernández et al., 2020).