The Professional Geographer ISSN: 0033-0124 (Print) 1467-9272 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtpg20 (What Geographers Should Know About) The State of U.S. and Canadian Academic Professional Associations’ Engagement with Mental Health Practices and Policies Linda J. Peake & Kim England To cite this article: Linda J. Peake & Kim England (2019): (What Geographers Should Know About) The State of U.S. and Canadian Academic Professional Associations’ Engagement with Mental Health Practices and Policies, The Professional Geographer, DOI: 10.1080/00330124.2019.1611455 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2019.1611455 Published online: 28 Jun 2019. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 5 View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtpg20 (What Geographers Should Know About) The State of U.S. and Canadian Academic Professional Associations’ Engagement with Mental Health Practices and Policies Linda J. Peake York University Kim England University of Washington The professional organizations to which geographers belong and by which they are represented have a civic duty and ethical responsibility to educate their members about mental health issues in their professions and, by default, their work environments. And yet national-level professional associations in North America are lagging behind universities in adopting initiatives, commissioning reports, and looking into best practices around the mental health of their members. A survey of the Web sites of sixty-six professional associations in the social sciences, geographical sciences, and humanities in the United States and Canada reveals an uneven presence of attention to mental health issues in terms of their members’ research on mental health issues, awareness of mental health as a professional development issue, and engagement in mental health advocacy and public outreach. In this article, we explore how geography’s professional organizations compare to others with respect to these issues and suggest ways in which they can develop their own mental health protocols to address the crisis of mental health in the academy. Key Words: Academic professional associations, American Association of Geographers, Canadian Association of Geographers, mental health, mental health practices and policies. 地理学家所属且为其代表的专业组织，具有教育成员有关其职业的心理健康问题与预设的工作环境之公民义务和道德责任。 但北美全国层级的专业组织，却在有关其成员的心理健康方面採取倡议、委任报告并寻求最佳实践上落后于大学。我们对美 国与加拿大六十六个社会科学、地理科学和人文学科的协会网站进行调查，发现在关注其成员研究心理健康议题、意识到心 理健康作为专业发展问题，以及参与心理健康倡议和公共推广方面等心理健康议题，存在着不均的关照。我们于本文中，探 讨地理专业组织如何在这些议题上与其他组织相互比较，并建议其能发展自身心理健康协议以应对学术界的心理健康危机之 方法。关 关键 词 ： 学 术 专 业 组 织 ， 美 国 地 理 学 家 协 会 ， 加 拿 大 地 理 学 家 协 会 ， 心 理 健 康 ， 心 理 健 康 实 践 与 政 策 。 Las organizaciones profesionales a las que pertenecen los ge
ografos, y a quienes representan, tienen un deber c
ıvico y una responsabilidad
etica de educar a sus miembros en asuntos relacionados con salud mental en sus profesiones y, por defecto, en sus entornos de trabajo. Es lamentable que las asociaciones profesionales de nivel nacional en Norteam
erica est
en rezagadas, detr
as de las universidades, en adoptar iniciativas, encargar informes y propender por mejores pr
acticas en la salud mental de sus afiliados. Una exploraci
on de los sitios Web de sesenta y seis asociaciones profesionales de las ciencias sociales, las ciencias geogr
aficas y las humanidades, en los Estados Unidos y Canad
a, revela una presencia desigual de atenci
on a problemas de salud mental en t
erminos de investigaci
on de sus miembros en temas de salud mental, conciencia de la salud mental como una cuesti
on de desarrollo profesional y compromiso y participaci
on en defensa de la salud mental. En este art
ıculo exploramos el modo como las organizaciones profesionales de la geograf
ıa se comparan con otras respecto de estos asuntos, y sugerimos las maneras como aquellas pueden desarrollar sus propios protocolos sobre salud mental para abocar las crisis que sobre este particular se presentan en la academia. Palabras clave: Asociaci
on Americana ografos, Asociaci
on Canadiense de Ge
ografos, asociaciones acad
emicas profesionales, pr
acticas y pol
ıticas de Ge
sobre salud mental, salud mental. M ental health is “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (World Health Organization 2018). In academia, poor mental health among members is an overlooked aspect of their health and well-being. Yet, an increasing number of studies indicate that anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions have reached crisis proportions in the North American academy and beyond, requiring systemic interventions from multiple actors (e.g., The Queen's Principal's Commission on Mental Health 2012; Kinman and Wray 2013, 2015; Gallagher 2014; University of Pennsylvania 2015; American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment 2018). In this article, we report on an analysis of the efforts to address members’ mental health by a variety of professional academic associations in the United States and Canada. We examine the practices and The Professional Geographer, 0(0) 2019, pages 1–17 # 2019 American Association of Geographers. Initial submission, June 2018; revised submission, January 2019; final acceptance, February 2019. Published by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. 2 Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX policies that they have put into place in relation to the mental health of their members and from our analysis offer ways in which professional associations in geography could move forward in advancing a set of mental health protocols for their membership. The article includes three sections: an overview of engagement with mental health issues by geographers, a description of the data collection and method of analysis, and an analysis of the data we gathered from national-level professional associations and their implications for the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG). The article concludes with a set of recommendations for consideration by these professional organizations. Geographers’ Engagement with Mental Health Issues in the Anglo-American Academy: From Research to Advocacy Anglo-American geographers have a long history of addressing mental health issues, although until recently this has focused primarily on conducting research, with the study of the geographies of mental health now featuring in medical geography (e.g., Morrissey 2016), health geography (e.g., Dear and Taylor 1982; Li and Rose 2017), social and cultural geography (e.g., Philo 1995; Parr 2000, 2008; Birnie and Grant 2001), and critical disabilities studies (e.g., E. Hall and Wilton 2017). There is, however, a paucity of information about the state of studies of mental health geographies in other regions of the world, with the development of global mental health studies only emerging in the last couple of decades (McGeachan and Philo 2017; White et al. 2017), after the publication of the 1993 World Development Report (World Bank 1993; see also Steel et al. 2014). Although this work demonstrates that issues pertaining to mental health research have firm foundations across human geography, it is work emerging from feminist geography that is addressing the crisis in mental health in the academy, showing it to be relationally linked across workspaces and everyday lives, with its own stressors in terms of the production of academic subjectivities (Mullings, Peake, and Parizeau 2016; Parizeau et al. 2016; Peake and Mullings 2016). Themes in this emerging field include the ways in which academic workplace-based stress affects the mental health of students, faculty, and staff members alike and strategies for managing this stress (Mountz 2016; Mountz et al. 2015); autobiography and the politics of disclosing emotional and mental distress (Bondi 2014; England 2016); mental health and work–life balance (Schuurman 2009; Hawkins, Maya, and Ojeda 2014; SimardGagnon 2016); accommodations in academia (Chouinard 1996, 2011); advocacy through academic service (Domosh 2014); and the intersections between mental health, equality, diversity, and inclusion in the academy (Maclean 2016; Parizeau et al. 2016). To the best of our knowledge, however, there are as yet no publications by geographers (feminist or otherwise) on mental health in the academy outside the Anglo-American context. Although there is clear evidence that workplace stress contributes to anxiety and depression among faculty (Reevy and Deason 2014), the work undertaken by feminist geographers also recognizes the increased experiences of mental health difficulties resulting from being located within the workplace of the university, particularly in relation to the neoliberalization of the academy (see also Tucker and Horton 2012). The stresses induced by changes in the academic workplace in the early twenty-first century have led to incidences of mental ill health for students, faculty, and staff members alike (Price 2011; Peake and Mullings 2016; Kerschbaum et al. 2017). For students, the increased levels of student debt and the pressure to excel and achieve high grades are leading to “destructive perfectionism” (University of Pennsylvania 2015). Graduate students face the reduced likelihood of finding a tenured academic job in the growing academic gig economy, where low wages and the demand for “flexible” schedules have created a perfect storm of anxiety-inducing conditions (Hawkins, Maya, and Ojeda 2014; Askins and Blazek 2017). For faculty members, the pressure to excel has also led to the university becoming an “anxiety machine” (R. Hall 2014; Berg, Huijbens, and Larsen 2016), with the pressure to perform (conference presentations, writing deadlines) contributing to increasing levels of depression and anxiety (Cvetkovitch 2012). Financial cutbacks and the pressures of declining job security, alongside the inability to strike a sustainable work– life balance, are as likely to lead to stress and fatigue for faculty as they are for students (Price 2011; Price et al. 2017). Universities are increasingly rising to the challenges of the crisis of mental health, through, for example, introducing specific protocols on student accommodations and more general policies regarding mental health, increasing student awareness of available academic support services, adopting mental health awareness months, and developing informational Web sites with links to campus resources (Kadison and Foy DiGeronimo 2005). These policies, however, are invariably focused on the individual and do little to change the structure of the academy itself in terms of, for example, reducing student tuition, providing affordable accommodation, or providing alternatives to exam-driven grades. Moreover, the focus at the university level is predominantly on institutional accommodations for students. Apart from the inclusion of mental health days into sickness benefits, rarely are there U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health university initiatives that address the mental health of faculty members and administrative staff or that bring the academy itself under scrutiny (but see Price 2011; Kerschbaum et al. 2017; Price et al. 2017). Even more seldom are there initiatives by professional academic organizations that address issues of mental health. Indeed, professional associations are lagging behind universities in adopting initiatives, commissioning reports, and looking into best practices around the mental health of their members. We believe that the professional associations to which geographers belong and by which they are represented have a civic duty and ethical responsibility to educate their members about mental health issues in their professions and, by default, their work environments. The CAG and AAG already have a large impact on the discipline of geography in North America, not only because of the large number of academic geographers who belong to them and attend meetings but also because of the influence that they have in shaping teaching and research policies and hence the production of geographical knowledge. Both the CAG and AAG have influential research-based study groups and specialty groups, publication outlets in terms of leading journals and newsletters, and awards and grants. In terms of teaching, the CAG has assembled an online database of articles related to pedagogy that CAG members can access and it also advocates for strong and relevant geography curricula at the high school levels. The AAG, with many more resources, engages in a much wider range of activities, including providing materials for teaching geography, online modules for international collaborative learning, and tools for student projects. It also works collaboratively with other geography organizations and professional societies to monitor education policy, support interdisciplinary research on educational topics, and raise awareness of career opportunities in geography. There is already, moreover, within the AAG a program (the Geography Faculty Development Alliance [GFDA]) aimed at providing early-career faculty and advanced doctoral students with the knowledge sets needed to succeed in teaching, research, and service leadership. There is also a task force addressing issues of harassment in the academy. We see the culture of support fostered by the GFDA and the political context in which knowledge production takes place being addressed by the task force serving as models to address issues of mental health. Perhaps most important, in initial talks with the directors and presidents of the CAG and AAG (and the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers) there was a large groundswell of support for and goodwill regarding the suggestion of investigation into this topic. The initiative that emerged was the establishment in late 2014 of an AAG Task Force on Mental Health (populated by 3 feminist geographers and their allies from Canada and the United States).1 The rationale behind the establishment of the AAG Task Force on Mental Health initially grew out of its members, in our professional roles as educators, mentors, researchers, and administrators, increasingly sharing troubling, personal stories that fell within the realm of deteriorating mental health and spoke to and supported the findings of a growing number of studies addressing a crisis of mental health in the academy, especially for students but also for faculty and staff. Starting with faculty members in Canada—Beverley Mullings, Kate Parizeau, and Linda Peake—other members from the United States and Canada were invited to join, ensuring that we had representatives of established scholars, early-career-stage scholars, independent scholars, retired faculty, and graduate students. The Task Force served the purpose of being able to move from the sharing of personal stories to having an institutional space that served to legitimize our concerns and take them forward. The mandate of the Task Force was to address and promote awareness of mental health and wellness among academic and professional geographers and to advocate on behalf of the AAG in fostering mentally healthy departments, institutions, and professional geography settings. In pursuit of this mandate, the Task Force has been engaging in advocacy and awareness-raising through the creation of a listserv, conference sessions, publications, and a Web site (set up as a Knowledge Community page on the AAG Web site and accessible to members only at http://community.aag.org/communities/communityhome?CommunityKey¼e95dd969-0fb3-4284-ba2cd6ed3fa42f49); compiling secondary data and resources on the academy and mental health; curating a repository of relevant research and best practices that inform mental well-being on campuses and in other relevant professional settings; and providing professional guidance to the AAG through the Task Force’s report (Peake et al. 2018). Among the data being collected by the Task Force are those we address here on the policies of North American professional organizations with respect to mental health issues. As members of the Task Force we were delegated to conduct a survey of (the Web sites of) academic social sciences, geographical sciences, and humanities-based professional associations to examine the extent to which they engage with questions of mental health. The data compiled allow us to explore where the AAG and CAG stand in relation to their counterparts in their members’ levels of engagement in research on mental health issues, on educating their members about the prevalence of mental health issues in the academy, and on advocacy and public outreach relating to mental health. 4 Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX Table 1 Types of professional associations in the United States and Canada included in the survey (listed alphabetically) United States Canada Academic disciplines (n 5 29) Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) African Studies Association (ASA) American Anthropological Association (AAA) American Association for Public Administration (AAPA) American Association of Geographers (AAG) American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) American Economic Association (AEA) American Historical Association (AHA) American Literature Association (ALA) American Philosophical Association (APA) American Planning Association (APA) American Political Science Association (APSA) American Psychological Association (APA) American Society of Criminology (ASC) American Sociological Association (ASA) American Statistical Association (ASA) Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Geoscience Information Society (GIS) International Studies Association (ISA) Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) Law and Society Association (LSA) Linguistics Society of America (LSA) Modern Language Association (MLA) National Communication Society (NCS) National Geographic Network of Alliances for Geographic Education (NGNAGE) National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Population Association of America (PAA) Sexuality Studies Association (SSA) Academic disciplines (n 5 28) Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID) Canadian Association for Work and Labor Studies (CAWLS) Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Canadian Comparative Literature Association (CCLA) Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA) Canadian Disability Studies Association (CDSA) Canadian Economics Association (CEA) Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) Canadian Law and Economics Association (CLEA) Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA) Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA) Canadian Philosophical Association (CPA) Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) Canadian Society for the Study of Religion (CSSR) Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics (CSSPE) Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC) Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (SDH) Statistical Society of Canada (SSC)
ministes (WGSRF) Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Fe Academic associations with a practitioner focus (n 5 2) International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Academic associations with a practitioner focus (n 5 2) Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) Organizations representing academics (n 5 4) American Association of University Professors (AAUP) American Association of University Women (AUUW) American Council on Education (ACE) Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) Organizations representing academics (n 5 1) Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Methods and Data The list of professional associations is drawn from the (U.S.) Consortium of Social Science Associations and Global Affairs Canada, each of which record associations in the U.S. and Canadian education community, as well as from the AAG Web site and our own knowledge of relevant organizations.2 We chose professional associations in the United States and Canada specifically because it is where the majority (about 77 percent) of members of the AAG are located (and the AAG Task Force on Mental Health consists of both U.S.- and Canadian-based geographers)3 and also because of our familiarity with these national contexts given our current locations in universities in Canada and the United States. Geographers in other countries might well have developed similar task forces, but with the exception of the United Kingdom we are unaware of any other systematic attempts or discussions, formal or informal, to make an intervention into mental health issues in the academic profession of geography.4 In the current digital era, Web sites and Web pages have emerged as valuable texts and sources of data, although researchers face problems in relation to the longevity of Web sites as well as with the reliability and validity of the information they contain (Bryman and Bell 2016). The professional nature of the Web sites we researched, however, leads us to believe that there is a high level of accuracy, authenticity, validity, and reliability in terms of the information they provide. The data we examined were derived from the Web sites of three groups of professional associations in the United States and Canada: (1) national-level social science, geographic science, and humanities academic professional associations; (2) associations from those disciplines in which substantial numbers of members engage in U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health 5 Table 2 Professional associations in the United States and Canada for which there was no material on mental health on their Web sites United States (n 5 18) Canada (n ¼ 22) African Studies Association (ASA) American Association for Public Administration (AAPA) American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) American Literature Association (ALA) American Philosophical Association (APA) American Planning Association (APA) American Political Science Association (APSA) American Society of Criminology (ASC) Geoscience Information Society (GIS) International Studies Association (ISA) Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) Linguistics Society of America (LSA) Modern Language Association (MLA) National Geographic Network of Alliances for Geographic Education (NGNAGE) National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Population Association of America (PAA) Sexuality Studies Association (SSA) Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID) Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies (CAWLS) Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Canadian Comparative Literature Association (CCLA) Canadian Disability Studies Association (CDSA) Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) Canadian Law and Economics Association (CLEA) Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA) Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA) Canadian Philosophical Association (CPA) Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) Canadian Society for the Study of Religion (CSSR) Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics (CSSPE) Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC) Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) Canadian Society for Digital Humanities (SDH) Statistical Society of Canada (SSC)
ministes (WGSRF) Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Fe Table 3 Professional associations in the United States and Canada with material relating to mental health on their Web sites (listed alphabetically) Information provided is discipline specific Advocacy and resources are provided to and only related to research professionals, faculty, students, and staff Canada (n ¼ 9)  Association for Canadian Studies  Canadian Anthropology Society  Canadian Association for Social Work Education  Canadian Association of Geographers  Canadian Criminal Justice Association  Canadian Economics Association  Canadian Psychological Association United States (n ¼ 17)  Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences  American Anthropological Association  American Association of Geographers  American Economic Association  American Historical Association  American Psychological Association  American Sociological Association  American Statistical Association  Association of American Law Schools  Association on Higher Education and Disability  International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation  Law and Society Association  National Association of Social Workers  National Communication Society               Resources provided to the public Canadian Association of Social Workers  Canadian Association for Social Work Education Canadian Association of University Teachers Canadian Psychological Association Canadian Psychological Association American Association of Geographers American Association of University Professors American Association of University Women American Council on Education American Psychological Association American Sociological Association American Statistical Association Association on Higher Education and Disability National Association of Social Workers National Communication Society American Psychological Association International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation National Association of Social Workers social science scholarship and have a practitioner or applied role dealing directly with issues of mental health (e.g., psychology and social work); and (3) those associations that represent academics (e.g., the American Association of University Professors and the Canadian Association of University Teachers; see Table 1).5 In total, the Web sites of sixty-six    professional associations in the United States (n ¼ 35) and Canada (n ¼ 31) were investigated. Findings and Analysis The search of the Web sites of the sixty-six professional associations reveal a marked absence of Table 4 Research-based group Advocacy around mental health Other relevant material on Web site Awareness of mental health as a research issue Awareness of mental health as a professional development issue Public outreach (i.e., Web site section devoted specifically to the public) Academic disciplinary organizations 1 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Disability Specialty Group; Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty Group Task Force on Mental Health (since 2014) No Web page to be devoted to mental health (forthcoming) Medium Medium No 2 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) No groups, but frequent theme in the ACJC Today newsletter and many conference papers touch on mental health No No Award for Academic leadership and Innovation, criteria include mental health services among list of eligible practitioners Medium Low No 3 American Anthropological Association (AAA) 40 Sections; Society for Medical Anthropology, Society for Psychological Anthropology (each have their own journals, Medical Anthropology Quarterly and Ethos, and a book series, Culture, Mind and Society); also interest groups Committees and task forces: None No Course syllabi (e.g., Anthropology 245: Culture, Mental Illness and the Body) AAA policies: Statement on Disabilities (adopted in 1993) High Low No 4 American Economic Association (AEA) A few research articles in American Economic Review Committees: Has one entitled Identities but no committee on mental health No Low Low No 5 American Historical Association (AHA) Affiliated Societies (130): includes History of Medicine Committees: Emerging group “Historians for Mental Health” (2017) No Addressed mental health at 2017 conference; initiated a conversation tackling the stigma of mental health Low Low (just beginning to address) No 6 American Psychological Association (APA) 56 Divisions/societies: Society of Addiction Psychology; Psychoanalysis; Intellectual and No Yes Publications and databases on addictions, anxiety, depression, emotional health, stress, therapy, trauma, and High Medium Psychology Help Center is an online consumer resource featuring information related to psychological issues Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX Name of organization Nonresearch administrative group 6 Modes of engagement with mental health by professional associations in the United States workplace issues (includes topics on mental health). The Disability Issues Office serves as the central point for APA activities pertaining to disability, supports the work of APA’s Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology, and works with other psychologists and organizations to improve the health and well-being of persons with disabilities. Psychology Help Center American Sociological Association (ASA) Sections (specialty groups 58): Section on Sociology of Mental Health includes Mental Health Awards Committee: a. Leonard I. Pearlin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Sociological Study of Mental Health (since 1994) b. Sociology of Mental Health Dissertation Award (since 1994) c. Best Publication in the Sociology of Mental Health (since 1994) All awarded annually Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities in Sociology (one of 4 status committees) “advises and guides the ASA on the status of the discipline and profession of those groups that have experienced a pattern of discrimination in society” (2008). No No 8 American Statistical Association (ASA) Sections (28) and interest groups (6): Mental Health Statistics section (est. 2013) has webinars, student Committees: Committee on Statistics and Disability: “(1) Advancing the study of disability No ASA policy statement on disability issues Links to federal agencies with a disability focus Links to external Web High High No Medium High No (Continued) 7 7 affecting daily physical and emotional wellbeing; one of its five interest areas is Health and Emotional Wellness U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health Development Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorders; Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse; Society for Clinical Neuropsychology; Society for Health Psychology (all have their own Web sites) Table 4 (Continued). Research-based group Advocacy around mental health Awareness of mental health as a professional development issue Public outreach (i.e., Web site section devoted specifically to the public) Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX within the field of statistics, (2) Promoting the study of statistics among people with disabilities, (3) Suggesting improvements for the accessibility of ASA-related meetings, activities, and materials; the committee has nine members, three of whom are appointed/reappointed each year by the President Elect for 3year terms.” paper award, and social events at conferences Other relevant material on Web site Awareness of mental health as a research issue site with information on surveys, statistics, and research on disabilities President’s invited column (newsletter) 2008 about the Committee on Statistics and Mental Health 9 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Academic sections: 82 (link to a member-only page), including Disability Law, Law and Mental Disability No No Mental health initiatives adopted by individual law schools in the United States Medium Low No 10 Law and Society Association (LAS) Collaborative Research Networks (51): Law and Health, Disabilities Legal Studies Standing Committee on Diversity (no explicit mention of mental health) No Statement on Disability and Nondiscrimination Medium Low No 11 National Communication Society (NCS) Divisions (48): Health Communication. Gives annual awards, not explicitly on mental health. Some publications in Journal of Health Communication Six caucuses –one on Disability Issues, does not explicitly mention mental health No ‘Action Alerts’ asking members to write to Congress on NCA related issues. NCA Presidential Initiative on anti-bullying in schools and workplaces Medium Low No No Professionzal training courses and links to finding a therapist Medium Low Provides resources for the public Professional associations concerned directly with mental health 12 International Society for the Study of Trauma and Special interest groups (5) including Creative Arts No 8 Name of organization Nonresearch administrative group Dissociation (ISSTD) 13 National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Therapy and Vicarious Trauma SIG Specialty practice sections (11, one of which is Mental Health, members-only) No Yes Engage in advocacy and social justice around mental health issues (e.g., writing letters to Congress) High Low Separate consumer Web site open to the general public that addresses Health and Wellness and Mind and Spirit 14 American Association of University Professors (AAUP) N/A No No Newsletter items only Low Low No 15 American Association of University Women (AAUW) N/A Issues: Communities (no mental health content) No Some blog entries under “Communities” Low Low No 16 American Council on Education (ACE) N/A No Yes ACE is consistently at the center of federal policy debates in areas critical to higher education; has a Web section that engages in higher education topics that includes a section on accessibility; engages in advocacy on equal access to education for students with disabilities; produced A Strategic Primer on College Student Mental Health (2014) Low High No 17 Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) 18 Special interests groups, one of which is Mental Health Disability; also produces Journal on Postsecondary Education and Disability Standing Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (does not have mental health content) Yes Has a legal database that can be accessed by members only, a newsletter (The Hub), other publications, and a virtual learning center High High Has a section that provides resources to students and parents U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health Academic representative organizations 9 Nonresearch administration group Research-based group Advocacy around mental health Other relevant material on Web site Awareness of mental health as a research issue Awareness of mental health as a professional development issue Public outreach (i.e., Web site section devoted specifically to the public) Academic disciplinary associations 1 Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) Study groups (16): Geography of Health and Healthcare Study Group; Canadian Women and Geography Study Group No (although members of the CAG initiated the Task Force on Mental Health in the AAG and comprise 50% of the Task Force members) No Statement under “Student Councilor” about undergraduate and graduate students feeling anxious about their future Low Low No 2 Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) Research topics: Health (within which is limited mental health content) No No No Low Low No 3 Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) Groups: Medical Anthropology Network (one subtheme in abilities) No No Links to the 2017 AAA conference call for a panel on “Anthropology Matters in Mental Health: Advancing Psychological Anthropology through Engagement with Global Mental Health”; other 2017 conference calls for papers related to mental health Medium Low No 4 Canadian Criminal Justice Association (CCJA) Canadian Journal of Criminology (limited content on mental health) No No No Low Low No 5 Canadian Economics Association (CEA) Study/specialty groups (29): Canadian Health Economics (limited content on mental health) No No No Low Low No 6 Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Sections (32): Addiction Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Clinical Neuropsychology; Psychopharmacology; Psychologists in Hospitals and Health No Yes Advocacy: CPA works closely with the Mental Health Commission of Canada and has helped draft Canada’s’ first mental health strategy, Changing Directions, Changing Lives: The High Low Has material on issues affecting Canadians (includes workplace mental health) and finding a psychologist Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX Type and name of organization 10 Table 5 Modes of engagement with mental health by professional associations in Canada Centres; Social and Personality Mental Health Strategy of Canada (2012) Professional associations concerned with mental health Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) Caucuses (4): (dis)Ability Caucus (2013), which promotes disability awareness, accommodation, and access; annual reports; publishing articles and books, teaching, conference presentation, and research projects No Yes No Medium Low No 8 Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) Canadian Social Work Journal (very little content on mental health) No Yes Web document on the role of social work in mental health; advocacy and coalitions. CASW is affiliated with (32) including the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, the Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health, the Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative, the Canadian Harm Reduction Network, the Canadian Mental Health Support Network, and Partners for Mental Health Medium Medium No Standing Committee of Council: Equity Committee includes category of Academic Staff with Disabilities No Issues and campaigns: Equity, including for academic staff with disabilities Medium Medium No Academic representative organizations 9 Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) N/A U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health 7 11 12 Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX resources or policies pertaining to mental health issues in the academy in 61 percent of them. Table 2 provides a list of those organizations that had no significant mention of mental health in any capacity on their Web sites. This includes 51 percent (n ¼ 18) of the U.S. associations and 71 percent (n ¼ 22) of the Canadian associations. Only twenty-six professional association Web sites—seventeen in the United States and nine in Canada—had any information pertaining to mental health. We categorized these twenty-six organizations according to three criteria: (1) whether its members engaged in research on issues of mental health, broadly defined, at a low, medium, or high level of interest and productivity; (2) whether it had specific governance or administrative groups (e.g., committees, task forces, interest groups) dedicated to addressing the mental health of its own members; and (3) whether it engaged in advocacy in relation to the mental health of the general population. Table 3 lists these organizations and Tables 4 and 5 describe their specific modes of engagement with issues of mental health. Professional Associations Whose Members Engage in Research on Mental Health Across the professional associations of the academic disciplines there is only a low- to medium-level take-up of research on mental health—with members of nine professional associations in Canada and eleven in the United States engaging in research. In terms of the CAG, there is only a low level of activity, whereas the AAG merits a medium level of research activity. The AAG and CAG, like many of their counterparts in other disciplines, have specialty groups (other disciplines might refer to these as sections or divisions) with research interests that encompass mental health, namely, the AAG’s Disability Specialty Group and the CAG’s Geography of Health and Healthcare Specialty Group. It is in the social science fields of sociology, anthropology, psychology, and, somewhat surprising, statistics, that we found high levels of mental health research activity taking place, the most vibrant of which appears to be in the U.S.-based associations. The American Sociological Association (ASA) has fifty-two research sections, including one on the sociology of mental health, which supports research on social factors in mental health and offers three annual awards for research. Since 1994 they have honored the work of sociologist Leonard I. Pearlin, who has been central to sociological research on stress and mental health, with the Leonard I. Pearlin Award for distinguished contributions to the sociological study of mental health. In addition, since the mid-1990s, they have awarded the Sociology of Mental Health Dissertation Award and the Best Publication in the Sociology of Mental Health. The American Anthropological Association, with forty research sections, has two that actively engage in research on mental health (the Society for Medical Anthropology and the Society for Psychological Anthropology), each of which has their own journals, Medical Anthropology Quarterly and Ethos, respectively, as well as the book series Culture, Mind and Society. The American Psychological Association, with fifty-six researchbased divisions and societies, has six that engage in research on mental health, all with their own Web sites, indicative of a lively level of engagement. Similarly, the Canadian Psychological Association, with more than thirty research sections, also has six that relate to issues of mental health. The American Statistical Association has a Mental Health Statistics Section (established in 2013) that produces webinars and has a student paper award and also organizes social events at conferences. The remaining academic professional associations with research groups relating to mental health exhibit lower levels of research engagement. These include the Association of American Law Schools, which has two academic sections on disability law and law and mental disability. The Canadian Anthropology Society has the Medical Anthropology Network, which has a subtheme of “Abilities.” The Association for Canadian Studies has a “Health” research field within which there is some limited content on mental health. The Canadian Economics Association has a research section on Canadian health economics but with very little content about mental health. Other U.S. associations, such as the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the Law and Society Association, and the National Communication Society, only touch marginally on research about mental health. Similarly, the American Historical Association (AHA) has also not yet engaged with mental health research (although it has a History of Medicine Research Group). The AHA leadership, however, organized a session at its 2017 annual conference called “Historians for Mental Health: Starting New Conversations,” which led to two articles in the association’s newsletter and a similar session organized for their 2018 conference (see Russell 2016). Other academic professional associations, although not having specific research-based groups, do have research journals in which the topic of mental health is examined; for instance, the American Economic Association has a few research articles in its journal, American Economic Review, as does the Canadian Criminal Justice Association in its Canadian Journal of Criminology. All of the four professional associations, which by the nature of their field directly address mental health in an applied manner, also exhibited research U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health activity to varying degrees. In the United States, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has specialty practice sections, one of which is on mental health. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation publishes the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation and has three relevant special interest groups (SIGs): Vicarious Trauma SIG, Creative Arts Therapy SIG, and Ritual Abuse/Mind Control SIG. The Canadian Association for Social Work Education has four caucuses, one of which—the (dis)Ability Caucus, established in 2013—promotes disability awareness, accommodation, and access through research projects, teaching, conference presentations, and publications. The Canadian Association of Social Workers also disseminates research findings though its journal Canadian Social Work Journal. The professional associations representing academics unsurprisingly have much less engagement with research. Only the U.S.-based Association on Higher Education and Disability had any involvement in research. It produces the Journal on Postsecondary Education and Disability and has eighteen SIGs, one of which is Mental Health Disability. Professional Associations That Address the Mental Health of Their Own Members Professional associations that addressed the mental health concerns of its own members were thin on the ground. Prior to the establishment of the Task Force, the AAG had fleetingly addressed mental health issues in its newsletters (Richardson 2009; Domosh 2014) and the CAG has a CAG Members Resources page on its Web site (for members only) that includes links to resources that address mental health. Apart from the AAG’s Task Force on Mental Health, only two of the disciplinary associations, both in the United States, had similar committees. Since 2008, the ASA has had a Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities in Sociology, which serves to advise the ASA on the status of the discipline and the profession of those groups that have experienced discrimination (see http://www. asanet.org/about-asa/governance/committees-andtask-forces/committee-status-persons-disabilitiessociology). The American Statistical Association has a Committee on Statistics and Disability with responsibility for “(1) Advancing the study of disability within the field of statistics; (2) Promoting the study of statistics among people with disabilities; and (3) Suggesting improvements for the accessibility of ASA-related meetings, activities, and materials” (see http://ww2.amstat.org/committees/cmtesd/). The only other association in this category represents faculty members in Canada, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, whose Equity Committee includes a category of academic staff with disabilities. 13 Professional Associations Engaging in Advocacy and Public Outreach Neither the AAG nor CAG engages in advocacy and public outreach. Engaging in advocacy and public outreach around mental health issues is not seen as falling within the remit of most academic disciplinary associations, with the exception of the American Statistical Association. The American Statistical Association provides links on its Web site to U.S. federal agencies with a disability focus as well as to sites with information on surveys, statistics, and research on disabilities. The main disciplinary associations in our survey that do address advocacy and public outreach are psychology and social work associations in both the United States and Canada. The Web site of the American Psychological Association (APA) includes a wealth of publications and databases for the general public on addictions, anxiety, depression, emotional health, stress, therapy, trauma, and workplace issues, the latter including those related to mental health. It also has an Office on Disability Issues in Psychology that serves as the central point for APA activities pertaining to disability, including supporting the work of the APA’s Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology, whose mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of persons with disabilities. The APA also has a Psychology Help Center, which is an online consumer resource featuring information related to psychological issues affecting people’s daily physical and emotional well-being, with one of its five interest areas being health and emotional wellness. The Canadian Psychological Association works closely with the Mental Health Commission of Canada and helped to draft Canada’s first mental health strategy, Changing Directions, Changing Lives: The Mental Health Strategy of Canada (Mental Health Commission of Canada 2012). It also has resources for the public that address issues affecting Canadians (including workplace mental health) and help in finding a psychologist. Finally, at a much smaller scale of engagement, the American Anthropological Association drew up a Statement on Disabilities as early as 1993, but it does not directly engage in advocacy or outreach. There is no evidence that outreach and advocacy occur in any of the other disciplinary-based associations. As expected, issues of advocacy and public outreach are much more common among professional associations concerned directly with mental health. The U.S.-based International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation provides professional training courses and links to finding a therapist and also has a Web section on resources for the public. In a more critical vein, the NASW engages in advocacy and social justice around mental health issues (e.g., writing letters to Congress), as well as having a separate consumer Web site for the general public that addresses topics such as health and wellness and 14 Volume 0, Number 0, Month 20XX mind and spirit. The Canadian Association of Social Workers has documentation on its Web site on the role of social work in mental health and is affiliated with a number of other national organizations concerned with mental health. In terms of organizations that represent academic faculty members, the American Council on Education (ACE) is a consistent contributor to U.S. federal policy debates in areas critical to education. Its Web site has a section on accessibility and ACE also engages in advocacy on equal access to education for students with disabilities. The (American) Association on Higher Education and Disability has a legal database (that can be accessed by members only), a newsletter (The Hub), other publications, and a virtual learning center as well as a Web section that provides resources on mental health to students and parents. The Canadian Association of University Teachers has campaigns on equity that engage with academic staff with disabilities but not with the general public. Our findings overall show that, in general, there is more activity in professional associations in the social sciences, geographical sciences, and humanities in the United States than in Canada. Overall, in terms of the three areas addressed in this overview, first, for most academic disciplinary associations there is little if any evidence that mental health is a research issue, but a few social science disciplines are leading the way, namely, anthropology, psychology, sociology, statistics, and geography. Second, in terms of being aware of the need to address the mental health of their own members there is even less activity: only two disciplines, sociology and statistics, in addition to geography, represented by the AAG, are taking action. Finally, public outreach and advocacy is largely restricted to psychology associations and those with an applied interest in mental health. The most pertinent finding from our survey is that only a very small number of professional associations address the mental health of their members. Conclusion and Recommendations One often overlooked part of mental health and well-being is the role of the professional organizations to which we belong. In this article, we have addressed the extent to which professional organizations are putting the crisis of mental health in the academy onto the agenda of students, faculty, and administrators. In our survey on the activities being undertaken to address mental health by a variety of professional academic associations in the United States and Canada, we found that research on mental health is being addressed by only a few academic disciplines, but geography is proving to be one of the leaders when it comes to the role of professional organizations addressing the health of its own members, with only the ASA and the American Statistical Association already active in this regard. We believe that our survey is the first of its kind. The survey (of Web sites) of academic professional associations can only ever be incomplete and insufficient and does not provide a comprehensive overview of all of their research activities or efforts to support their membership or the general public. Although the survey serves to give only a rough and ready portrait, it has also provided fertile ground for suggestions for future activities for professional organizations in geography.6 Based on the exploration of the activities of other professional organizations, our recommendations include the following: 1. Crafting a mission statement on mental health for the AAG and CAG Web sites. 2. Establishing a permanent Standing Committee on Mental Health in the AAG to replace the Task Force that completed its three-year mission in late 2018. Both the Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities of the ASA and the Committee on Statistics and Disability of the American Statistical Association provide models on which to build this recommendation. 3. Supporting and keeping current the Knowledge Community page on the AAG Web site containing mental health resources for students, staff, and faculty. Resources are needed to advertise the existence of this page and to bring it to the attention of all AAG members. 4. Expanding the CAG’s and AAG’s advocacy and social justice efforts to explicitly include policy and legislative issues regarding mental health, such as writing to national, state, and local governments and, in some instances, funding agencies, colleges, and universities. For instance, the National Communication Society has an “Action Alert,” which has included mental health issues, and the American Statistical Association provides links to federal agencies with a disability focus. 5. Continuing to organize academic events and introduce social events regarding mental health at annual conferences. Currently, only the American Statistical Association holds social events, but these allow for a nonjudgmental space for those in the academy who are living with mental and emotional distress to meet others and network and thus serve an important networking function. U.S. and Canadian Professional Associations' Engagement with Mental Health Acknowledgments We acknowledge the help of Bryan Mark (currently an MA student in the Graduate Program in Geography, York University) with the Web site data collection. We also acknowledge the invaluable work of the American Association of Geographers Task Force on Mental Health. 4 5 6 15 Discussions with the Royal Geographical Society/ Institute of British Geographers about establishing a Mental Health Task Force in the United Kingdom began in 2014, with informal meetings being held at the annual conferences in 2016 and 2017. The Web sites were accessed at various times in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Only a funded research project would provide both the financial and labor resources needed to conduct a more comprehensive survey. ORCID Linda J. Peake 3698-0269 Kim England 6160-7760 http://orcid.org/0000-0003http://orcid.org/0000-0001- Notes 1 2 3 In the summer of 2014, three AAG members—Beverley Mullings, Kate Parizeau, and Linda Peake—approached the AAG Council about establishing a Task Force on Mental Health. The initiative was voted on by the Council in fall 2014. Then AAG President, Mona Domosh, moved to authorize its establishment; the motion passed unanimously (with one abstention). Only national-level organizations were included from the Consortium of Social Science Associations and Global Affairs Canada lists; we omitted provincial associations in Canada and regional organizations in the United States, such as the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers. The professional associations of disciplines such as economics, history, psychology, and sociology are large enough to have smaller and more focused professional associations such as the Rural Sociological Association; in these instances only the national association was included. We also excluded organizations associated with university administration (e.g., the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences). We did not include organizations whose audiences are the general public as opposed to academics, such as the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, or organizations that represent universities, such as the Association of American Colleges & Universities. We also did not include labor unions that represent academics (e.g., Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents graduate students), given that labor unions are not present at all universities. 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