 By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
The transition to a New Year and decade prompts us to reflect on our lives and consider the state of our society. At Access Institute we’ve been pondering all of this and our hopes for the future. What kinds of advances, challenges, and changes in the mental health field did the recent decade produce? How do those developments match what we see more broadly in society? Are we doing everything we can to meet the needs of our communities?
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 By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
In my previous two posts, I examined our failure as a society to truly address the mental illness/wellness crisis in our midst. The evidence and consequences of this failure are everywhere as rates of mental illness rise along with related social problems, trillions of dollars in costs, widespread suffering, and death. Another consequence of continuing to marginalize psychological and emotional problems is that we perpetuate a myth that the causes of depression, anxiety and other forms of severe emotional distress aren’t well understood and don’t have effective treatments. For the latter half of the 20th century and continuing today, the dominant thinking about mental illness has privileged biomedical causes and technical interventions like medications and behavioral therapies. However, because biological factors are only one of a number of contributors to emotional problems, basing treatments solely on them has led to narrow and disappointing results. This is a well-established fact. But rather than rectifying a misguided approach, there has been a doubling down on the search for brain-based causes and treatments. Much of this is wasted energy and it diverts our attention and obscures the truth. We do know the fundamental causes of serious mental illness and we already have excellent treatments and other remedies at hand. We are continuing to expand our knowledge of the mind, but what we need more than greater knowledge is a new approach to the problem. That’s how we solve mental illness.  By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
In my last post, I questioned why we haven’t yet witnessed a declared goal from any government agency, professional organization, or major institution to end mental illness. I reviewed the fractured history of how we theorize disorders of the mind and formulate their treatment, a history that goes part of the way to explaining why we’ve been held back from such an ambitious objective. But there’s more to the story. It’s not enough to say that mental illness is such a complex problem that a total solution can’t be conceived. For other difficult problems, like poverty, or cancer, or human trafficking, ending or eliminating the problem absolutely is the stated goal. Go to Google and write “ending” in front of any of those issues and you’ll see books, articles, and organizational goals clearly aiming to solve the problem — for good. If you do the same for mental illness you won’t find the same determination. (The closest you’ll get will be demands to end mental health stigma or discrimination against the mentally ill.) Solving those other big social problems won’t be any easier than truly tackling mental illness. However, stating the aspirational aim to end poverty or any other deeply-rooted affliction is imperative even if you recognize that the road to reaching that goal isn’t yet mapped out. Not only is it a way to inspire, to marshal resources, and get the needed attention on the problem, it also says something important about the problem; it creates a narrative of the issue. It says that the problem’s causes can be discovered and addressed, and more importantly, that the problem itself is fundamentally unacceptable, and therefore, that we bear a moral responsibility to work toward its eradication.  By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
Why have we not cured mental illness? And more importantly, why is there no movement advocating for that goal? May is mental health awareness month which means it’s the month of the year when we see more discussion of the problems related to mental health than in any other. We will hear, again, that depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, leaving billions of dollars in lost productivity, devastating pain, and death in its wake. We will read more stories of the harrowing struggles of individuals suffering in isolation. We will hear more calls for early detection, intervention, and increased awareness. What we won’t hear about is a strategy to fully address the problem. Despite billions of dollars of research and millions of pages of published study, not only do we lack a comprehensive theory of mental illness, but our current efforts to manage it are falling short, as rates of illness are rising. So it’s time for us to ask the hard question: What would it look like if mental illness were solved or “cured” and how can we make that happen? In the next few posts, I’d like to address that question. First, how did we get here?  By Bart Magee, Ph.D.
The last couple of years have seen an exponential rise in the popularity and use of genetic testing. People are getting tested to research ancestry, identify genetic risks for health problems, even for dating. Not only are consumers accessing testing on their own, but it’s being added as a routine screen at clinics and doctor’s offices. On-line services are available to take one’s data and analyze it for potential health risks. And all of this is happening with little or no government oversight and even less psychological insight. And the risks are just beginning to be known. As it was back in the early, wild-west days of the internet, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, excited by a new technology and the wealth of information it can provide while paying little heed to dangers that lie ahead. Lack of privacy around genetic information is a major concern, but I’m going to leave that dialogue to experts in other fields. I’d like to discuss the potential risks to individual health and well-being that are real, serious, and need more attention. |