Cabassa honored with 2025 SSWR book award

Myra López
Faculty; Social Work
Cabassa's book "Addressing Health Inequities in People with Serious Mental Illness: A Call to Action" is published by Oxford University Press.

Leopoldo J. Cabassa, a professor and co-director of the Brown School’s Center for Mental Health Services, has received the 2025 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Book Award for his book, Addressing Health Inequities in People with Serious Mental Illness: A Call to Action, published by Oxford University Press. 

The book explores the root causes of health inequities affecting individuals with serious mental health illness and offers actionable solutions. Drawing on his Puerto Rican heritage and personal experiences, Cabassa combines science, data, and human stories to highlight the “double burden” faced by racial and ethnic minorities with mental illness. 

“This book is deeply personal for me,” Cabassa said. “I wanted to write a book for the general public that brings science, data, and people’s stories together to examine why these inequities are happening and what we can do about it. These are the stories of people coping with these health issues and of the clinicians, researchers and policymakers working on the front lines to reduce these health inequities.” 

The SSWR honored Cabassa for his significant scholarly contributions to advancing social work knowledge. He’ll receive the award during the SSWR Awards Presentation Jan. 18, 2025, at the annual conference in Seattle, WA. 

Cabassa also delivered the prestigious 2025 Aaron Rosen Lecture at the conference, an honor recognizing scholars whose work bridges research and practice. The lecture was established by SSWR in collaboration with the Brown School to honor Dr. Aaron Rosen’s legacy.

In 2024, Cabassa co-founded the Center for Holistic Interdisciplinary Research in Psychedelics (CHIRP). Supported by a grant from WashU’s Transcend Initiative that aims to promote universitywide, interdisciplinary collaborations, CHIRP includes faculty from WashU Medicine, the Brown School and Arts & Sciences. The center’s goal is to provide the infrastructure so WashU researchers in all fields can help build the body of knowledge needed to get these powerful therapies not only into the hands of doctors and therapists, but also into the lives of the people who need them.