Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health Hardcover – February 8, 2022 by Thomas Insel MD

Description

Author: Insel MD Thomas

Color: Multicolor

Package Dimensions: 21x235x585

Number Of Pages: 336

Release Date: 08-02-2022

Details: Product Description
A bold, expert, and actionable map for the re-invention of America’s broken mental health care system

As director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas 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?” Dr. Insel knew in his heart that the answer was
not nearly enough. The gargantuan American mental health industry was not healing millions who were desperately in need. He left his position atop the mental health research world to investigate all that was broken—and what a better path to mental health might look like.

In the United States, we have treatments that work, but our system fails at every stage to deliver care well. Even before COVID, mental illness was claiming a life every eleven minutes by suicide. Quality of care varies widely, and much of the field lacks accountability. We focus on drug therapies for symptom reduction rather than on plans for long-term recovery. Care is often unaffordable and unavailable, particularly for those who need it most and are homeless or incarcerated. Where was the justice for the millions of Americans suffering from mental illness? Who was helping their families?

But Dr. Insel also found that we do have approaches that work, both in the U.S. and globally. Mental illnesses are medical problems, but he discovers that the cures for the crisis are not just medical, but social. This path to healing, built upon what he calls the three Ps (people, place, and purpose), is more straightforward than we might imagine. Dr. Insel offers a comprehensive plan for our failing system and for families trying to discern the way forward.

The fruit of a lifetime of expertise and a global quest for answers,
Healing is a hopeful, actionable account and achievable vision for us all in this time of mental health crisis.
Review
“[
Healing] offers a wealth of fresh, clear, and mercifully jargon-free facts and insights into America’s mental health care problems and possible solutions. . . . This is a formidable entry in the field of books about the mental health crisis.”
—Kirkus

“Insel, former director of the National Institute for Mental Health, debuts with a profound diagnosis of the ills and promises of the United States’ mental health-care system
. . . He offers a sense of hopeful solutions, including an expansion of community-based mental health programs, the use of technological innovations such as ‘digital phenotyping’ that can help keep track of how people behave outside of clinics, and initiatives that provide employment, housing, and social connection. It’s as compassionate as it is comprehensive.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I love stories that bridge biology, psychology, and sociology to understand a big problem. Insel, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist, here has written such a story about how we care for or, more accurately, how we have failed to care for people with mental illness, and the impact that has on so many other huge problems our society is facing today. This is really a book about social justice. Insel is the ideal person to take this on—he is a revered and respected neuroscientist, internationally known as a researcher and tech entrepreneur. So his voice is especially compelling and this book should become a call to action for a new social movement.” —
Michael Pollan, author of This is Your Mind on Plants

“Healing is truly one of the best books ever written about mental illness, and I think I’ve read them all. Dr. Insel speaks as a parent, scientist, doctor, and our government’s former ‘nation’s psychiatrist,’ defining what’s wrong and offering clear-headed solutions—all while guiding us forward with compassion, goodness, and hope in this juggernaut wake-up call.” —
Pete Earley, author of Crazy

“
Healing is a masterpiece. Tom Insel has