Healing

A bold, hopeful, expert, and actionable vision for the re-invention of America's broken mental health care system

When he was the head of the National Institute of Mental Health, a position known as "America's psychiatrist", Dr. Tom Insel was giving a presentation when the father of a boy with schizophrenia yelled from the back of the room, "Our house is on fire and you're telling me about the chemistry of the paint! What are you doing to put out the fire?" Insel knew that was true, and he left his position atop the mental health world to investigate what was broken in mental healthcare and what a better way might look like.

We've all heard the mental health crisis in America referred to as "the next pandemic." Even before COVID, mental illness was claiming a life every 11 minutes by suicide. Dr. Insel shows we have treatments that work, but our patchwork, sick-care system fails at every stage to deliver care well. Quality varies hugely, and there is no oversight of much of the field. Care is often unaffordable and unavailable, and much of the population that needs it most is homeless or incarcerated. We focus on drug therapies for symptom reduction rather than on plans for long-term recovery.

But Dr. Insel also sees much that is working both in the US and globally. Mental illness is a medical problem, but the solution to the crisis is largely social and relational: not more medications, but more family, more community, more inclusion, and more hope. The path of recovery here is straightforward, achievable, and scalable.

The fruit of a lifetime of expertise and a global quest for answers, RECOVERY is a vital map for us all in this time of mental health crisis.