Article Abstract

Online ISSN: 1099-176X    Print ISSN: 1091-4358
The Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics
Volume 26, Issue 2, 2023. Pages: 77-83
Published Online: 1 June 2023

Copyright © 2023 ICMPE.

PERSPECTIVE
Forecasting the Future: Lived Experience and the Transformation of Mental Health Services Research in the United States

Nev Jones,¹* Franco Mascayano,² Ezra Susser,³ Lawrence H. Yang⁴

¹PhD, School of Social Work & Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA USA
²MPH, New York State Psychiatric Institute & Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
3MD, DrPH, New York State Psychiatric Institute & Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
⁴PhD, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University & Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Global Public Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA

Over the past two decades, consensus has emerged in WHO and other international organizations regarding the foundational role and importance of integrated service users – individuals with lived experience of mental health services and systems – into mental health clinical and services research. At present, support and infrastructure in the United States (US) lags behind many other high-income, Anglophone and Western European countries. This Perspective, originally part of the 2022 NIMH Mental Health Services Research Conference’s “Forecasting the Future” plenary panel, makes the case for systematic and coordinated investment in the policy, funding, infrastructure and organizational change that would be necessary to substantively strengthen participatory and co-produced mental health services research in the US.