Problems in behavioral health care: leap-frogging the status quo

A version of this paper was presented as a keynote address entitled "Strategies for Catalyzing Change" at the September 2001 Annapolis Conference on Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training. It explores some of the problems inherent in our present health care system and suggests that ultimately, revamping pre-professional training is the key to sustained system change. While the paper approaches the problems inherent in our behavioral health care system from a psychiatric perspective, it is believed that similar issues and concerns exist across disciplines and that ultimately the solution requires our ability to transcend narrower perspectives.