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Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America

Organization: 
President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.
Publisher: 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Date Published: 
July, 2003

This report finds that mental health care in United States is often inadequate and needs fundamental transformation, and the lag between discovering effective forms of treatment and incorporating them into routine care is unnecessarily long. The report suggests that successfully transforming the mental health service delivery system rests on two principles: 1. Services and treatments must be consumer and family centered. 2. Care must focus on increasing consumers' ability to cope successfully with life's challenges, on facilitating recovery, and on building resilience, not just managing symptoms.

Download a copy of Achieving the promise: Transforming mental health care in America (PDF, 1.35 MB) from the Mental Health Commission's Web site.