Columbia’s Department of Psychiatry has developed an innovative new outreach initiative as psychologists and psychiatrists prepare for a tsunami of mental-health issues caused by the collective trauma of the pandemic. The Post-COVID Community Mental Health Project, funded by the Leon Levy Foundation, sets out to increase public access to mental-health information. In collaboration with the National Black Leadership Commission on Health and the New York Public Library, the project has identified through roundtable workshops ten mental-health topics on which Columbia Psychiatry will produce a series of educational videos. Local libraries will purchase books, distribute and promote materials, and host a series of virtual community-education forums.
