Bridging Knowledge and Care: Why Institutions Need Faith and Culture Informed Mental Health Research

Across the globe, mental health systems continue to expand — yet millions of individuals remain without care that truly reflects their social, spiritual, and cultural realities. While international agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) have made progress in defining mental health policy frameworks, a persistent gap remains between evidence-based policy and lived experience. Faith, culture, and community remain underrepresented in public health research and program design.

Maryam Tree Center seeks to bridge this divide by producing, translating, and disseminating culturally informed research that policymakers, health systems, and academic institutions can use to strengthen mental health care worldwide.

1. The Global Mental Health Gap

The WHO estimates that nearly one in eight people globally live with a mental disorder, yet more than 70% of those in low- and middle-income countries receive no treatment at all (World Health Organization, 2022). Even within high-income nations, systemic inequities persist. Black, Indigenous, and immigrant populations are often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed due to cultural misunderstanding or implicit bias in clinical settings (Snowden, 2019).

Mental health policy frameworks — though evidence-based — often lack the contextual adaptation necessary for cultural validity. Programs designed in Western contexts are frequently exported globally without adequate consideration of local values, social structures, or faith-based coping systems (Patel et al., 2018). This “policy transfer without translation” undermines efficacy and perpetuates inequity.

2. The Problem: One-Size-Fits-All Frameworks

The biomedical model of mental health, while foundational, often neglects psychosocial and spiritual dimensions central to holistic well-being. In many communities, healing is a communal process that integrates prayer, storytelling, and collective support (Koenig, 2018). When policies ignore these dimensions, the resulting systems fail to engage the very populations they aim to serve.

Moreover, the global mental health discourse tends to privilege quantitative epidemiology over qualitative insight. As a result, the voice of culture — the lived, narrative-based understanding of distress and resilience — is diminished. For policy to work, it must be informed by ethnographic and culturally situated evidence as much as by statistical modeling (Summerfield, 2012).

3. The Knowledge-to-Policy Divide

Bridging research and implementation requires knowledge translation — the process of turning complex academic findings into actionable guidance. However, most mental health systems lack intermediaries that perform this translation. Universities produce research; governments produce policy; community organizations deliver services. Rarely do these entities speak the same language.

Maryam Tree Center’s emerging model addresses this disconnect through integrated research synthesis:

1. Collecting multidisciplinary data from psychology, public health, and theology.

2. Translating it into accessible frameworks and policy briefs.

3. Disseminating findings through digital platforms, conferences, and institutional partnerships.

   
   

By curating culturally and faith-informed mental health research, the Center aims to become an authoritative resource for governments, hospitals, and educational systems seeking guidance on equitable care.

4. The Role of Faith and Culture in Mental Health

Faith and culture significantly influence perceptions of mental illness, treatment-seeking behaviors, and recovery outcomes. Studies show that individuals who integrate spiritual or cultural coping mechanisms often experience enhanced resilience and social support (Pargament, 2013).

In Islamic psychology, for example, the human psyche (nafs) is viewed as a balance between the spiritual heart (qalb), intellect (ʿaql), and desires (shahwah). This framework offers therapeutic insights into self-regulation, trauma, and behavioral reform that can complement clinical interventions (Haque, 2018).

Similarly, Indigenous and African diaspora healing traditions emphasize collective identity and ancestral connection, both of which are critical for post-traumatic growth (Gone, 2013). These perspectives, when respected and incorporated, can make institutional care more responsive and humane.

5. The Maryam Tree Center Model: Research → Policy → Practice

a. Research

Conducting systematic reviews and primary studies that examine how spiritual and cultural frameworks impact health outcomes.

b. Policy Translation

Producing white papers and toolkits that policymakers can apply to national and local contexts.

c. Practice

Partnering with hospitals, universities, and faith-based organizations to train practitioners in culturally intelligent care.

This tripartite model allows the Center to act as both a research body and a consultative institute, similar in structure to WHO Collaborating Centres and NIH translational research hubs.

6. Toward a New Paradigm: Cultural Intelligence in Health Policy

The future of equitable mental health lies in cultural intelligence (CQ) — the ability of institutions to recognize and adapt to diverse worldviews. CQ extends beyond “competence”; it requires curiosity, humility, and co-creation with the populations served (Livermore, 2020).

For policymakers, adopting CQ means embedding cultural research into legislation, funding mechanisms, and program evaluation. For clinicians, it means seeing patients not as diagnostic categories but as moral and spiritual beings shaped by community and belief.

Maryam Tree Center’s work aspires to provide the data, frameworks, and language to make this shift possible — transforming health systems into instruments of understanding as much as of treatment.

7. Conclusion: Knowledge as Healing

Mental health reform must evolve beyond policy rhetoric to cultural realism. As the world confronts widening health disparities, we need research institutions that not only produce data but interpret meaning.

By integrating psychology, faith, and public health, Maryam Tree Center envisions a future in which every policy, clinic, and classroom honors the full spectrum of human experience.Just as WHO sets international health standards, the Center’s mission is to set a moral and cultural standard for mental health — one that recognizes knowledge itself as a form of healing.

References

Gone, J. P. (2013). Redressing First Nations historical trauma: Theorizing mechanisms for Indigenous culture as mental health treatment. Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(5), 683–706. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461513487669

Haque, A. (2018). Psychology from an Islamic perspective: Contributions of early Muslim scholars and challenges to contemporary Muslim psychologists. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(1), 256–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0436-9

Koenig, H. G. (2018). Religion and mental health: Research and clinical applications. Academic Press.

Livermore, D. A. (2020). Leading with cultural intelligence: The real secret to success. AMACOM.

Pargament, K. I. (2013). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press.

Patel, V., Saxena, S., Lund, C., Thornicroft, G., Baingana, F., Bolton, P., ... & UnÜtzer, J. (2018). The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development. The Lancet, 392(10157), 1553–1598. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31612-X

Snowden, L. R. (2019). Health and mental health policies’ role in better understanding and closing African American–White disparities in treatment access and quality of care. American Psychologist, 74(6), 746–759. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000367

Summerfield, D. (2012). Afterword: Against “global mental health.” Transcultural Psychiatry, 49(3–4), 519–530. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461512454701

World Health Organization. (2022). World mental health report: Transforming mental health for all. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240063600

By Maryam Tree Center

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