Session: Leveraging Inner Transformation for Social Transformation: Examining the Role of Mindfulness in Supporting Health Equity (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

In the face of overwhelming health inequities, there is increasing recognition that addressing injustices must involve the shifting of consciousness toward greater respect for life and interconnectedness. A long lineage frames mindfulness as grounded in an ethic of interdependence and has a high potential to support action for justice. We define mindfulness broadly, focused on practices that support the capacity to be present, including practices that are spiritual, religious, secular/psychological, or originate in Indigenous communities. Interest in mindfulness has exploded in the last 30 years, along with burgeoning research focused on the connection between mindfulness and individual health outcomes. Yet critiques of Western popularized mindfulness highlight that the focus on individual health has neglected the potential for mindfulness to support broader social change. This symposium will focus on how mindfulness and related contemplative practices can catalyze our capacity to realize health equity. This symposium brings together four separate research studies to explore different dimensions of how mindfulness might support healthy equity across socio-ecological levels. Each project addresses a different dimension of how mindfulness can help address health equity (i.e., police violence, health service accessibility via online delivery, historical trauma among immigrants, and burnout among social workers). Our first presentation focuses on how mindfulness might support dialogue between black community leaders and police. The second paper examines mindfulness as a support for healing from historical trauma among Vietnamese American immigrants. A third study addresses health equity by looking at how online delivery might expand access to mindfulness supports for health. Finally, a last methodological study explores a participatory approach to developing a mindfulness intervention to enhance social workers’ capacity to sustain efforts in social change. Presentations will address the untapped potential in mindfulness research to serve as a mechanism for health equity, and will detail practical implications for how researchers can bring a health equity perspective to mindfulness studies.