Happy Birthday Psycom: The 10 Most Meaningful Advances in Mental Health Since 1996

Happy Birthday Psycom: The 10 Most Meaningful Advances in Mental Health Since 1996
Posted on Dec 07 2021
Psycom.net

To mark Psycom’s 25th anniversary, we solicited input from organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Psycom’s editorial advisory board, and thought leaders look at how far we’ve come and give hope for the future. “Since 1996, there has been a positive shift in attitudes around mental illness and a focus on developing treatments to improve the quality of life for people with mental illness,” says Ken Duckworth, MD, CMO at NAMI. The late Dr. Aaron Beck, psychiatrist, rejected Freudian psychoanalysis and proposed a more pragmatic approach that was time-limited and goal-focused. Dr. Beck’s Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) hinged on the belief that by altering our thoughts, we can change how we feel and behave. The recognition and use of cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis (CBTp) as an accepted form of treatment for people with schizophrenia is another important breakthrough, says Dr. Duckworth. Passage of the Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) — in 2008 — was a major step toward ending discriminatory practices of covering mental health and addiction treatment at lower levels than coverage for other medical and surgical care, says Hannah Wesolowski, national director of government relations, policy and advocacy at NAMI.