Mental Health Care Reform Urged by Top Scientists

Psychotherapy experts say that as Americans work to reform the medical care system, they should also redesign how mental health care is delivered. In a new paper, Yale University’s Dr. Alan Kazdin, a former president of the American Psychological Association, believes that we must acknowledge a basic truth — all of our progress and development in evidence-based psychotherapy has failed to solve the rather serious problem of mental illness in the United States.

In a prior paper, Kazdin urged psychological scientists to rethink the current mental health system in order to make adequate treatment available and accessible to all who need it. In the current paper, several distinguished scientists have highlighted important points that will need to be addressed before the mental health care system can be overhauled...