Despite the tremendous need for mental health services, funding for such care is still "alarmingly poor" in the United States, said APA's Executive Director for Professional Practice Katherine Nordal, PhD, at the Nov. 20 event "Let's Talk Solutions for the Future of Mental Health" at the National Press Club.
The event brought together psychologists, journalists, scholars, veterans and advocates to discuss solutions in three areas: how to improve and increase mental health services for underserved and minority communities, how to improve care for veterans and how to reduce stigma about mental illness.
While research shows that investing in prevention-oriented programs can reduce mental illness and improve health, too few prevention-oriented programs get the attention and funding they deserve, said Nordal, who participated in a response panel at the event, hosted by the Chicago School of Professional Psychology (CSPP). "We have a real problem in this country about where we put our priorities in terms of really fostering well-being," she said.
One approach to increasing access to mental health care is to put mental health resources directly in the communities where they are needed most, said psychologist Patricia Arredondo, EdD, president of CSPP's Chicago campus. For example, CSPP oversees the Saving Our School Children program through which the school's faculty and students promote anti-violence at Chicago's public schools. "We must be community engaged," says Arredondo. "The solutions are many and the solutions are possible, as long as we all come together and know that it is our collective responsibility."
Likewise, fighting stigma requires people of all stripes to share their experiences with mental illness, said journalist Lee Woodruff, wife of ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2006 while covering the war in Iraq for ABC World News Tonight. Woodruff spoke about getting help for her depression and grief after her husband's injury. She urged health journalists to keep mental health issues in the news to increase awareness and prompt people to seek services when they or their loved ones need it.
"Mental health is health," said Woodruff. "Until we can all understand that there is no health without mental health, then none of us will move forward."
Other speakers and panelists included former U.S. Surgeon General M. Joycelyn Elders, MD, and Capt. Michael Jude Colston, MD, who directs the mental health program in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.
CSPP plans to publish a report this fall called "No Health Without Mental Health" that will expand on the ideas discussed at the event and review the latest research on prevention and treatment for mental illness. For more information, go to CSPPopens in new window.
— Jamie Chamberlin
