Removing barriers to care among persons with psychiatric symptoms

Many persons with serious psychiatric conditions who could benefit from available treatments do not receive care, and the barriers are generally understood to be limited knowledge, inadequacies in insurance coverage, and stigma. Sophisticated approaches are needed to realistically eliminate these and other barriers. Public policy should focus on criteria for need for care and encourage interventions that facilitate treatment when it can be helpful. Appropriate insurance coverage is indispensable, and achieving mental health parity will require careful management of care. Policymakers must help to create a trustworthy management structure that is inclusive, that develops and disseminates models of best practice, that encourages evidence-based decision processes, and that ensures continuing dialogue and procedural fairness in managed care decision making.