What is special and significant about this issue?
The special issue of American Journal of Orthopsychiatry titled “Looking Back, Moving Forward” honors and celebrates the 100th anniversary of the journal’s parent organization, the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice (formerly the American Orthopsychiatric Association). The articles included in this special issue reflect the organization’s long-standing commitment to working at the intersection of mental health and social justice across many disciplines. Each article provides a sense of hope that we can promote a brighter future related to behavioral health challenges, especially if we understand the importance of looking to the past and how it has led us to our present state. Collectively, the articles address the full behavioral health continuum, from the promotion of behavioral health to the treatment of serious mental illness. Further, the articles reflect the organization’s long-held belief that efforts to promote behavioral health must exist at the individual, family, community, and societal levels.
What are the practical implications and takeaways?
Among the articles included in this special issue are historical overviews of developments in behavioral health (Carr, 2024; Handrup et al., in press; Hirshbein, 2024; Lomax & Migid, 2024; Tomaszewski et al., in press) that also address the developments’ implications for the future. In a trends analysis of 80 years of U.S. mental health policy that reflects on how social determinants and efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination have led to measurable progress toward achieving mental health equity, Tomaszewski et al. (in press) highlight opportunities to further support mental health and wellness by implementing various interdisciplinary policy and practice recommendations, such as framing mental health as a human right. After describing the development of the field of psychiatric mental health nursing, Handrup et al. (in press) observe that the field is poised to undergo a significant transformation, shifting its focus to global mental health and interdisciplinary collaboration. The article includes recommendations for addressing disparities in access to mental health care, such as by eliminating systemic biases; workforce development, such as by identifying ways to task share and deploy mental health paraprofessionals; and global reach, such as by prioritizing community-based participatory research processes and strategies.
Three commentaries (Beardslee, 2024; Manderscheid & Ward, 2024; Sargent, 2024) incorporate the authors’ personal experiences into their reflections on major developments in the field and future scenarios in behavioral health practice and policy. For example, Manderscheid and Ward (2024) detail current and likely future developments in the field. In describing key future action facilitators, the authors provide a wide range of suggestions on topics such as the current workforce crisis, the creation of centers of excellence for innovation in behavioral health, opportunities for cross-sector work, and the challenge of building an integrated framework to undergird behavioral health.
The next set of articles (Barbarin, 2024; Machado et al., in press; McCabe, 2024; McLeigh & Gil-Rivas, in press) focuses on particular areas of policy and practice that align with the priorities of the Global Alliance for Behavioral Health and Social Justice. For example, Barbarin (2024) explores the racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions of Black boys from public schools and advocates banning exclusionary punishment, at least through Grade 6. The author identifies the conditions necessary to implement bans effectively and provides strategies for doing so.