Message from the Dean

In December 2013, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announced that the Obama Administration would make available $100 million to increase access to mental health services and improve mental health facilities. Specifically, $50 million would go toward community health centers to establish or expand services, and the other $50 million would be earmarked for mental health facilities in rural areas.

The announcement garnered much attention at the time, as the one-year anniversary of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings neared, and investigators were set to release their final report on the incident. Unfortunately, the issues surrounding mental health—treatment, access to care, and stigma, among many others—often only receive attention when a tragedy has rattled the national psyche.

We have made progress in recent years. Mental disorders are recognized as physical conditions, mental health research is gaining more attention, and perhaps most important, people recognize that mental health is public health. Any mental health issue concerns all of us.

At Rollins, we are leading the call for mental health research and improvements in care. A contingent of researchers is bringing attention to the various areas of mental health—that children with private insurance still cannot access care, why people with mental disorders lack primary care, and how state parity laws affect treatment, for example. What we have found indicates that our nation still has a lot of work to do to bring mental health care in line with the rest of physical health care.

Rollins researchers recently have been brought together under the umbrella of the Center for Behavioral Health Policy Studies, a new initiative led by Benjamin Druss, the Rosalynn Carter Chair in Mental Health. With the new center, Rollins researchers will continue to gain visibility and thus sustain the national dialogue on mental health to ensure that children and adults with diagnosable disorders have access to the services they need.