Mental Health, Psychology & Counseling, Health Policy, Epidemiology, Medical Ethics, History, General, Social Services & Welfare, Reference, Ethics, Psychology 

The past half century has been marked by major changes in the treatment of mental illness: important advances in understanding mental illness, increases in spending on mental health care, the support of people of people with mental illnesses, and the availability of new medications. The authors assert that, although these changes have made things better for those who have mental illness, they are not enough for those living with a major mental illness.
Richard G. Frank and Sherry A. Glied examine the well-being of people with mental illness in the United States over the past 50 years, addressing issues such as economics, treatment, standards of living, rights, and stigma. Marshaling a range of new empirical evidence, they argue that people with mental illness are faring better today than in the past. Progress has come from growth of private health insurance and of mainstream social programs-such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, housing vouchers, and food stamps-along with the development of new treatments that are easier for patients to tolerate and for physicians to manage.
The authors remind us that, despite the progress, this disadvantaged group remains worse off than most others in society. The “mainstreaming” of persons with mental illness has left a policy void, where governmental institutions responsible for meeting the needs of mental health patients lack the resources and programmatic authority to do so. To fill this void, Frank and Glied suggest that institutional resources be applied systematically and routinely and address how federal and state programs affect the well-being of persons with mental illness.