Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Development

Mental Health Disparities Research

NIH designates people belonging to racial and/or ethnic minority populations, low socioeconomic status (SES) groups, underserved rural populations, sexual minority groups, and people living with disabilities as populations adversely affected by health disparities . Mental health disparities are preventable differences in health care or health status that disproportionately affect certain populations, often due to intergenerational social, economic, and environmental disadvantages. There are striking and well-documented disparities in the risk, course, burden, and outcomes of mental illnesses. NIMH is committed to promoting research that prioritizes the underlying biological, social, environmental, and structural factors  that drive differences in mental health outcomes across health disparity populations . There is also an interest in examining individual differences within health disparity populations that exacerbate or mitigate these population level differences.

NIMH supports research that seeks to:

• Address health disparities across all points of the research continuum, spanning basic, translational, interventions, and services research.
• Increase the understanding of mechanisms, at multiple levels (e.g., individual, community, societal), underlying disparities in mental health.
• Encourage disaggregation of research data to understand the nuances of unique mental health needs and outcomes within health disparities populations.
• Promote the implementation of evidence-based interventions to reduce disparities in mental health care quality, access, and engagement.
• Advance research on the social determinants of mental health disparities and multi-level interventions that can reduce or eliminate disparities.
• Catalyze community engagement and coproduction of knowledge and discovery related to research on the mental health needs of communities.

Women’s Mental Health Research

The NIMH supports basic science, translational, clinical, services and implementation interventions research that focuses on the prevention and treatment of mental illness in women across the life course. Women often experience mental illnesses differently than men—certain symptoms may be more common in women than men, or the course of an illness can be affected by the sex of the individual. Some women may also struggle with mental illness during times of hormone change, such as perinatal depression, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and perimenopause-related depression.

Mental Health Research Capacity Building

NIMH supports research capacity-building programs, including institutional and research workforce development initiatives in states and institutions across the United States that receive limited NIH funding. The research capacity-building programs supported by NIMH span all areas of mental health biomedical and behavioral research, from basic science to translational research to clinical studies.

For the most up-to-date research funding opportunities, please refer to the Explore NIH Grant Opportunities search tool .

For general inquiries, contact nimhodwd@nih.gov.