Point of View – Generational Competence: A Conceptual Framework for Aging in America

Two major demographic trends will unfold in America during the first half of the 21st century. Minorities will grow from 29% to 47% of the American population, and older adults (65+) will increase from 13% to 20%, becoming roughly as large as the population of children and adolescents under 18 for...

Point of View – Looking Back with Pride: Mental Health Policy in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century

I have had the good fortune over most of the past two decades to participate in the vast effort made by the Mental Health Association movement to make life better for people with mental illness, especially those who are disabled and rejected by society. There are two tremendously important...

Point of View: Mental Health Needs in Kinship

There are 350-400,000 children and adolescents in New York State that are in kinship care. I.e., they are raised by relatives other than their biological parents. Although there is some evidence that these children do better psychologically than those who are in foster care with strangers, there...

Point of View – Schizophrenia, The Mortality Gap, and Suicide

People with serious mental illness have a much lower life expectancy than the general population; estimates range from 9 to 32 years. Recent recognition of this mortality gap has led to increasing efforts to improve the health of these people by improving their access to health care and by...

Mental Health Policy in a Time of Economic Crisis

Do we need to shift mental health policy in this time of economic crisis? I think we do. I think we need to worry about the impact of economic decline on people with serious, long-term mental illness, and I think we need to build concern about the emotional well-being of the American people into...

Physical Health Should Be a Priority of the Mental Health System and Mental Health Should Be a Priority of the Health System

Over the past couple of years, it has become increasingly clear that physical health needs to be a priority of the mental health system and that mental health needs to be a priority of the health system. Why it took so long to realize this is not entirely clear to me, because the basic facts have...