A sensible 10-year plan for mental health

The Lancet: "As Klaus Ebmeier and colleagues describe in their Lancet Seminar today, depression affects around one in six people in the USA at some time in their lives, and may double their chance of death. These figures are similar for other developed countries and are compounded by the fact that over 50% of people with depression will become functionally impaired because of their illness.
Sadly, for many people a diagnosis of depression is made worse by the social stigma that still clings to all mental-health diagnoses, by difficulties in accessing treatment options, and by confusion about which treatments work and which may make their problems worse. The bewildering spectrum of therapeutic alternatives ranges from a conversation with a psychologist, through a confusing array of pharmacological alternatives, to more radical treatments such as deep brain stimulation. Paradoxically, some of the best drugs, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have been associated with an increased risk of suicide, although research published this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that this effect might be less common than initially thought.
The release last week of a policy paper, The future of mental health: a vision for 2015, by a multi-agency panel in the UK, is welcome news for patients with depression and those who care for them. Bold in its outlook, the policy envisages a shift in focus from mental illness to mental wellbeing over the next 10 years. Replete with important practical suggestions, the paper also considers broader aspects of mental-health policy, including education for children about mental-health issues and the importance of ensuring that prisoners with mental-health needs receive care comparable to that deemed acceptable outside prison.
The paper's authors rightly point out that, however bold they may/.../"