BALM is committed to advancing social justice by working with under-served communities to investigate real-world experiences and reimagine mental health care delivery. Our focus areas include community models, trauma-informed care, child well-being, public mental health and transdisciplinary approaches. Through journals, policy notes, reports and manuals, we aim to create knowledge that informs systemic change.
Mental Health & Social Work Research
Mental Health & Social Work Research
BALM is committed to advancing social justice by working with under-served communities to investigate real-world experiences and reimagine mental health care delivery. Our focus areas include community models, trauma-informed care, child well-being, public mental health and transdisciplinary approaches. Through journals, policy notes, reports and manuals, we aim to create knowledge that informs systemic change.
Current Research
Outcome Trajectories of People with Psychosocial Disabilities: A Ten-Year Evaluation of a Housing with Supportive Services programme
This 10-year study examines the lives of people with mental illness and histories of homelessness who were part of The Banyan’s Home Again housing programme across India and Sri Lanka. It explores their health, well-being, community life, care experiences, and economic outcomes.
This comprehensive evaluation fills key gaps in understanding the long-term impact of housing interventions beyond short-term outcomes. Using a mix of methods—including a cohort study, cost-effectiveness analysis, and interviews with stakeholders—it explores how people experience aging, support transitions, and community life. The findings will inform sustainable, community-based mental health care in low-resource settings.
Researchers Involved: Banyan Research Team
Funded by: Grand Challenges Canada
Expected Outcomes:
- Evidence on how community-based housing supports long-term recovery
- Cost-effectiveness compared to institutional care
- Insights into care transitions, aging and inclusion
Coping with Distress Together Using Open Dialogue for Individuals with Lived Experiences of Homelessness and Mental Illness
This study tests the use of Open Dialogue—a conversational, network-based mental health approach—for people with experiences of homelessness and mental illness in Tamil Nadu. Through a randomized controlled trial, it compares Open Dialogue with standard treatment to understand which better supports recovery.
The research focuses on more than just reducing symptoms. It looks at people’s ability to build relationships, make choices, and feel part of their communities. Using surveys and interviews, the study explores whether this approach fits well with Indian cultural and family systems.
Researchers Involved: BALM Research Team
Expected Outcomes:
- Evidence on the effectiveness of Open Dialogue in low-resource settings
- Insights into cultural adaptation for Indian family and community systems
- Contributions to global mental health models centered on dialogue and agency
Socio-structural Patterns and Experiential Dimensions of Mental Health Provisioning in Diverse Indian Contexts: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the NALAM programme Dataset
This study explores how the NALAM programme—run in urban, rural, and tribal areas across India—adapts to different communities and cultures. By combining data from six sites with interviews and group discussions, the research looks at how people understand mental health and how local realities like gender, caste, and poverty shape their experiences and needs.
The goal is to build mental health approaches that are more inclusive, culturally aware, and rooted in real-life community contexts.
Researchers Involved: The BALM Research Team
Expected Outcomes:
- Insights on how mental health programmes interact with social structures
- Evidence to guide more culturally sensitive services
- Frameworks for community-driven mental health care
Resource library
Discover study and insights that move practice, policy, and people towards a more inclusive mental health system.
Supported Housing as a recovery option for long-stay patients with severe mental illness in a psychiatric hospital in South India: Learning from an innovative de-hospitalization process
Developing care approaches to address the homelessness poverty and several mental illnesses crisis
