Title: A Neuroscientist – Consumer Alliance to Transform Mental Health Care

Author:

Section/SPIG: Mental Health

Issue Date:

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Journal of Behavioural Health Services and Research, April 2006
Amelia Compagni, PhD and Ronald W. Manderscheid, PhD
Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Abstract

The field of mental health has long suffered from a lack of convergence of disciplines that deal with the mind, the brain and behavior. This mind-brain dualism has been particularly detrimental for consumers and their families who daily face stigma and discrimination.
The understanding of the brain and its dysfunctions has benefited from the study of the human genome and, in particular, of the mutations and variations in its code. This analysis permits a better understanding of the biological basis of mental disease and will soon inform a generation of new diagnostic tools and individualized pharmacological therapies. A biological perspective on mental illness will be complemented by the analysis of the social factors influencing people’s behavior and their impact on brain biology and gene function.
Neurobiology has progressed to a level for which the knowledge that is generated, even if still colored with uncertainty, could represent a catalyst for the creation of an alliance between neuroscientists and consumers. This partnership has the potential to benefit both parties but will require some concrete steps that might be outside of the usual courses of action for both consumers and scientists. It is by building collaborations based on personal contact and information sharing that a transformation of the mental health care system can occur.