by Michael D. Anestis, M.S.
The listserv for the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP) lit up a bit this week as word got out that a thought-provoking article just published in Perspectives on Psychological Science by Alan Kazdin and Stacey Blase is temporarily available for free (until March 16, 2011) and that the journal is currently soliciting comments on the article. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
The article is lengthy and I have not yet been able to finish reading it, but I wanted to post the link now to maximize the amount of time that readers have full access to the material.
As a quick overview: the article examines the impact of current psychological interventions on the prevalence and cost of mental illnesses worldwide and proposes changes to our focus in psychotherapeutic research with an aim towards expanding the net of individuals in need who receive care while also diminishing the number of individuals who suffer from mental illness in the first place.
The authors are not proposing that we eliminate individual psychotherapy and, in fact, are strong promoters of empirically supported treatments (ESTs); however, they rightly note that, as effective as those treatments are, for a variety of reasons, more is needed.
Thus far, from what I have read, I am particularly drawn in by their proposals of using evidence-based technology (e.g., smartphones) to increase access to care, amping up evidence-based prevention efforts to reduce the demand for treatment services, and developing a national database of mental health to more accurately assess the degree to which the population as a whole as well as specific subcomponents are experiencing particularly notable levels of difficulty with certain psychological conditions.
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on this piece.
***********
If you are interested in learning more about the topics discussed on PBB, we recommend that you consult our online store for scientifically-based psychological resources.
Mike Anestis is a psychology resident at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and a doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology department at Florida State University
Subscribe in a reader
