APA’s recent Stress in America survey reflects what many of us are seeing ourselves—a nation struggling to deal with the exacerbation of mental health problems over the last two years. With this issue in the national spotlight, the field of psychology and broader society have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the future of mental health—including strengthening our infrastructure, increasing the coordination of care, ensuring equitable access to resources, and more actively promoting people’s mental wellness.
How do we rise to this moment and envision a better future for mental health? Each of us can play a role with three actions below that we, as an association and a field, should take to ensure this progress.
Reconceptualize our approach. Recovering from the pandemic means both managing the physical virus and addressing the accompanying psychological impacts. We cannot rely on treatment alone to fix these challenges. We must re-envision what it means to improve people’s mental health along a continuum and expand our strategies to include more early intervention and prevention. APA’s Council of Representatives, for instance, recently adopted a policy to guide our advocacy for population health and psychology’s role in advancing this perspective (PDF, 149KB)opens in new window.
Embrace the momentum. Shaping the future of mental health will require evolving the way we think about several issues: Where are broad shifts and trends in areas like health care financing and technology going in the next decade? Can psychology see these changes as opportunities to embrace—rather than challenges against which to defend—and position ourselves accordingly? Reimagining the future of mental health requires our field to have the leadership to adapt to an ever-changing world.
Forge new partnerships. Stakeholders in such areas as technology, law, philanthropy, public health, and business are increasingly engaging with mental health issues. As a hub science, psychology has unique opportunities to forge partnerships addressing the social determinants of mental health and to create new policy initiatives, interventions, and programs. We must position psychology as a resource, engage a broad cross-section of individuals, and use these important partnerships to enhance our efforts.
The state of our nation’s mental health begs for dramatic change in our approach. Now is the time for bold action to move us forward.