Challenges in implementing interventions to address the social determinants of mental health

There is a need to focus on intervention opportunities for social determinants of mental health that are within the reach of psychiatrists in their own practices and local health care systems. 

There are other interventions that individual psychiatrists could implement right now on their own by taking social factors into consideration in their practices and making use of local resources to help foster the wrap‐around services that are often needed by disadvantaged patients. In addition, groups of psychiatrists working in local health care systems could be instrumental in having their systems implement a mix of universal, selected and indicated interventions on social determinants of mental health that could have profound effects on population physical and mental health. A good guide in this respect is provided by the OASIS framework , developed by the VA Boston Health Care System, which outlines the potential mechanisms by which health care‐based social need interventions can improve health outcomes. Nonetheless, there is a need to distinguish the various levels of intervention on social determinants of mental health, and to more clearly identify and promote those that are within the reach of psychiatrists in their own practices.