Challenges and Opportunities in Global Mental Health: a Research-to-Practice Perspective.

Purpose Of Review: Globally, the majority of those who need mental health care worldwide lack access to high-quality mental health services. Stigma, human resource shortages, fragmented service delivery models, and lack of research capacity for implementation and policy change contribute to the current mental health treatment gap. In this review, we describe how health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are addressing the mental health gap and further identify challenges and priority areas for future research.

The Washington Heights Community Service model: positive outcomes and implications for reimbursement under the ACA.

Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) base reimbursement partly on hospital readmission rates, but there is little guidance for providers to reduce these rates. This column describes a model of care used by Washington Heights Community Service (WHCS) in New York City. Without benefit of external funding, WHCS has implemented practices, such as family involvement at all treatment levels, community outreach, effective medication prescribing, shared electronic medical records, and proactive provider communication, that have led to lower rates of readmission in addition to low rates of admission and emergency room use and a high rate of outpatient follow-up--all particularly relevant in this era of ACA mandates.