What is the current state of the public mental health system?
Bernstein: We’ve gone from disinvesting in people by keeping them in psychiatric back wards to disinvesting in people through a flawed community mental health system. The caseloads are astronomically high, people routinely fall out of the system, and over the years the number of people with mental illnesses who are put in jails and prisons has skyrocketed. Q. What is psychology’s role in all of this? Bernstein: If we brought our skills to bear in the way we know we can, we could make a tremendous difference for these individuals and for society. But in our silence, we’ve become part of the problem. Q. What would be a better solution, in your view? Bernstein: We know how to help people; we’re just not doing it. There are models we used 25 years ago that we know are successful. One example, assertive community treatment, entails a mobile interdisciplinary treatment team-perhaps a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a social worker, a case manager and a nurse-that establishes close, consistent
