Journal of Science Policy & Governance
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Volume 26, Issue 01 | June 16, 2025
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Policy Brief
Closing the Care Divide: Policy
Recommendations for Advancing Mental Health Treatment Engagement of
Marginalized Racial and Ethnic Groups
MacKenna Shampine1, Alaina Jaster1, Lana Grasser2,3
Corresponding author: [email protected] |
Keywords: social determinants of health; treatment disparities; mental health care access; behavioral health
Executive Summary
Mental health conditions carry significant societal and economic burden. However, treatment needs remain unmet and engagement with the mental health care system is low, particularly for communities who face systemic inequities that widen care gaps as a result of access to education, housing, and health care. To address mental health treatment disparities, we propose supporting the Pursuing Equity in Mental Health Act (H.R.3548/S.1700) that would fund research on therapies tailored to individual lived experiences, increase provider availability and competency to serve clients representative of the US population, and develop outreach strategies to destigmatize mental health and promote treatment engagement in underserved communities.
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Background header image courtesy of Loma
MacKenna Shampine, BA is a research assistant and lab manager in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree from Hope College where her work focused on the psychophysiological correlates of stress and emotion regulation. As a current executive board member of Science Policy Network - Detroit, she advocates for evidence-based health policy at local, state, and national levels. MacKenna will be joining the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program in the fall of 2025 to continue researching the psychobiological underpinnings of posttraumatic stress in youth to enhance treatment interventions and improve treatment outcomes.
Alaina M. Jaster, Ph.D. is a neuropharmacologist focused on understanding underlying mechanisms of addiction and neuropsychiatric disorders. She received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Toxicology from Virginia Commonwealth University where work focused on the molecular targets and mechanisms of psychedelics and their effects on opioid-drug seeking in rodent models. She is the co-founder of Psychedelic Brain Science and Your Brain on Science, a website and podcast venture aimed at bridging the gap between clinical and preclinical research. Jaster is also the Co-Chair of the Science Policy Committee of Students for Sensible Drug Policy where she works on a variety of policy issues. Her current research focuses on translational methods to assess behavioral and neurological changes associated with trauma as well as use and perceptions of psychedelics across populations at Wayne State University.
Lana Ruvolo Grasser, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Ben L. Silberstein Institute for Brain Health at Wayne State University, where she directs the Ruvvy Resilience Lab. Dr. Grasser recently completed her postdoctoral training with the Neuroscience and Novel Therapeutics Unit (NNT) within the Emotion and Development Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. She received her BS from Michigan State University and her Ph.D. from Wayne State University, where her NIMH-funded dissertation project, “Biomarkers of Risk and Resilience to Trauma in Syrian Refugee Youth”, identified skin conductance response to trauma interview and fear potentiated startle as candidate biomarkers of trauma-related psychopathology in youth exposed to civilian war trauma and forced migration. Dr. Grasser received the 2022 International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Dissertation Award for this work. Dr. Grasser has extended this work to query efficacy and underlying mechanisms of creative arts and movement therapies to address trauma-related psychopathology in families resettled as refugees of Syria, Iraq, the DRC, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Dr. Grasser is also passionate about science policy and advocacy. She is a member of the National Science Policy Network,the faculty advisor for her local SciPol-Detroit chapter, and a 2025 Society for Neuroscience Early Career Policy Ambassador. Most recently, Dr. Grasser received a travel award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and an Emerging Leader Award from the Anxiety and Depression Association of American in recognition of her research and advocacy.
Alaina M. Jaster, Ph.D. is a neuropharmacologist focused on understanding underlying mechanisms of addiction and neuropsychiatric disorders. She received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Toxicology from Virginia Commonwealth University where work focused on the molecular targets and mechanisms of psychedelics and their effects on opioid-drug seeking in rodent models. She is the co-founder of Psychedelic Brain Science and Your Brain on Science, a website and podcast venture aimed at bridging the gap between clinical and preclinical research. Jaster is also the Co-Chair of the Science Policy Committee of Students for Sensible Drug Policy where she works on a variety of policy issues. Her current research focuses on translational methods to assess behavioral and neurological changes associated with trauma as well as use and perceptions of psychedelics across populations at Wayne State University.
Lana Ruvolo Grasser, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Ben L. Silberstein Institute for Brain Health at Wayne State University, where she directs the Ruvvy Resilience Lab. Dr. Grasser recently completed her postdoctoral training with the Neuroscience and Novel Therapeutics Unit (NNT) within the Emotion and Development Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. She received her BS from Michigan State University and her Ph.D. from Wayne State University, where her NIMH-funded dissertation project, “Biomarkers of Risk and Resilience to Trauma in Syrian Refugee Youth”, identified skin conductance response to trauma interview and fear potentiated startle as candidate biomarkers of trauma-related psychopathology in youth exposed to civilian war trauma and forced migration. Dr. Grasser received the 2022 International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Dissertation Award for this work. Dr. Grasser has extended this work to query efficacy and underlying mechanisms of creative arts and movement therapies to address trauma-related psychopathology in families resettled as refugees of Syria, Iraq, the DRC, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Dr. Grasser is also passionate about science policy and advocacy. She is a member of the National Science Policy Network,the faculty advisor for her local SciPol-Detroit chapter, and a 2025 Society for Neuroscience Early Career Policy Ambassador. Most recently, Dr. Grasser received a travel award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and an Emerging Leader Award from the Anxiety and Depression Association of American in recognition of her research and advocacy.
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ISSN 2372-2193
ISSN 2372-2193