ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: A community-academic partnership was developed to implement a community-based participatory research project within Chicago's Englewood community. OBJECTIVES: We explain how Mental Health Impact Assessment (MHIA) ensures that mental health and health inequities are considered in decision making by using a systematic process that engages populations most likely to be impacted by those decisions. METHODS: We report on the process of developing an MHIA by engaging community partners to evaluate and predict potential mental health outcomes of an employment policy. LESSONS LEARNED: We describe the principle of working through bound liberation, resulting in a bidirectional engagement between academics and community partners. We highlight lessons and challenges of our engagement process. CONCLUSIONS: Effectively joining in solidarity with community partners was critical for project success, but community capacity needs to be increased to support future projects.
