The speakers at the 30th Annual Rosalynn Carter Center Symposium for Mental Health Policy celebrated the work and success of the center over the last three decades and took a look over the horizon on the next set of challenges for the field.
What does the future look like?
- Causes of mental illness are clearly identified due to new technologies and genetic information.
- There will be a major focus on reducing determinants for risk including environmental factors.
- Single systems of care are created to treat the whole person - mind and body.
- Premature mortality for people with mental illness is significantly reduced.
Several speakers spoke about the need for upstream investments that focus on mental illness prevention, wellness programs, and assessment and early intervention. We are just the cusp of real "population health" strategies that includes behavioral health changes due risk appraisals for obesity and smoking, for example.
Although several speakers spoke about the virtues of mental health and primary practice integration and that progress on integration has been made, we still have our work cut out since only 10 to 20 percent of people with mental illness are actually receiving -- what could be labeled as "integrated services", since delivery and financial mechanisms are still in their infancy.
It is clear that clinical mental health counselors are well positioned due your skills and training to make significant contributions to individual clients and larger health care organizations in this new brave world of population health and wellness and integrated care.
So invest in the future -- it is already here!
Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter shakes hands with AMHCA's Past President Judith Bertenthal-Smith.
AMHCA Executive Director and CEO, Joel Miller, Board President, Stephen A. Giunta, Ph.D. and Executive Director of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapists at the 30th Annual Rosalynn Carter Center Symposium on Mental Health Policy in Atlanta, Georgia.
AMHCA Board President, Stephen A. Giunta, Ph.D., President-Elect, Keith Mobley, Ph.D., and Past President Judith Bertenthal-Smith in the replica of the oval office at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum at the at the 30th Annual Rosalynn Carter Center Symposium on Mental Health Policy in Atlanta, Georgia.