Putting Mental Health Back in the Hands of Communities

By Liz Friedman, GPS Group Peer Support CEO & Co-Founder

The following blog post is a condensed version of the remarks Liz Friedman presented at the November 13th American Psychological Foundation Direct Action panel: “How Will You Direct Your Action?”

For years, our mental health system has been unable to meet the needs of the people who rely on it most. This was true before COVID, it worsened during the pandemic, and the current climate has pushed things to a breaking point. Too many individuals cannot access care because they cannot afford it, it is not offered in their language, it does not exist in their community, or their insurance will not cover it. Others have been harmed or dismissed within the healthcare system and no longer trust it enough to seek support. The result is an enormous and widening gap.

GPS Group Peer Support was built to answer that gap. We created a model that destigmatizes and depathologizes mental health care and places it directly in the hands of communities. The GPS model is evidence-based and trauma-informed, but it is also adaptable, flexible, and rooted in the cultural frames of the people using it. No matter the setting—faith-based, recovery, immigrant communities, health care providers, and so many others—we adapt our work to the values and experiences of participants, making mental health care more accessible, culturally meaningful, and trustworthy.

Now, the urgency of this work is only increasing. Medicaid is being cut. Insurance coverage is shrinking. People are forced to decide between accessing mental healthcare and buying insulin or feeding their families. In this reality, we cannot wait for the traditional system to save us. Mental health care must live where people actually are.

This is why GPS trains everyone from clergy, to lay leaders, peer specialists, community members, and clinical providers. Clinicians often have limited training in group facilitation and benefit from learning our structure. Lay leaders and community members may not have formal exposure to modalities like cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, or mindfulness-based stress reduction. Our model weaves these modalities together in a way that anyone can learn. A GPS group is like a multivitamin of evidence-based approaches delivered through human connection. 

At the same time, the model is grounded in a much older tradition. Human beings have always come together in circles to heal. Faith communities, Indigenous communities, and cultures around the world have relied on group connection as a core method of care. When people gather, trauma loosens. Today, isolation is at historic levels, and we see the consequences. We need circles again.

GPS stands at the intersection of evidence-based modalities, community wisdom, and cultural co-creation. Every community that partners with us shapes the model with its own values, strengths, traumas, and lived experiences. This is not care delivered from the outside. It is care built from within, informed by research, and supported by best practices.

The road ahead is difficult. The mental health crisis is deepening, and systems people once depended on are contracting. But the need for community-held, trauma-informed, culturally grounded group support has never been clearer. GPS was built for this moment. We will keep placing mental health care back in the hands of communities, no matter how challenging the landscape becomes.

Bring MASStrong to Your Workplace

GPS’s MASStrong program offers free GPS trainings, support groups, curriculums, and toolkits for Massachusetts medical, behavioral health, and community care workers and organizations. Eligible organizations can also apply for GPS partnership support and grants up to $10,000.