Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Origin: The Health Care Blog

Jeffrey Swanson, PhD, PHLR Methods Core member and professor at Duke University’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and John Petrila, J.D., LL. M., professor of mental health law and policy at the University of South Florida's latest post addresses the public health law challenge of mental illness.

Though it is clear that public health laws and policies play an important role in keeping people safe and healthy, as well as ensuring access to community-based mental health care for those who need it the most, new research-based approaches are needed to find out which public health laws and policies work best to improve mental health, and for what specific populations.  They also call for evidence on better ways to implement cost-effective legal interventions in the “real world.” Ultimately, this information must be used to inform the public debate, with the goal of improving the lives of the Americans who currently struggle with mental illness.