LESSONS FROM TRANSFORMING THE PSYCHIATRIC HEALTHCARE SYSTEM: HOW TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES?
The current psychiatric healthcare system is fragmented, the quality of care is variable, and outcomes are all too frequently suboptimal for our patients. While challenging and difficult, we need to transform the system of care if we aim to improve outcomes. The purpose of this panel is to discuss lessons learned from ongoing efforts to transform psychiatric care from the perspectives of public policy, the perspective of someone with lived experience, a comprehensive system to improve the care of people who experience their first episode of psychosis, and a learning health network focusing on bipolar disorder. Rebecca Bagley will discuss the ambitious efforts of The Kennedy Forum to reach its 90-9090 goals, aiming to screen 90% of the public for serious mental illness, provide evidencebased treatment to 90% of those affected, and help 90% of individuals improve. George McAllister will discuss his experience of treatment for bipolar disorder in the current system of care, what worked, and what did not. Lisa Dixon will discuss EPINET and ONTrackNY using a learning health system approach to improve the outcomes of young people with their first psychotic episode. Andrew Nierenberg will discuss the ongoing development of the Bipolar Action Network, a learning health improvement network across multiple healthcare systems designed to improve outcomes across the spectrum of bipolar disorder for all ages. Crystal Clark will discuss the challenges and successes of these efforts to improve care and outcomes.
Learning Objective 1: Identify and compare diverse approaches to transforming psychiatric care—including public-policy initiatives (e.g., the Kennedy Forum’s 90-90-90 goals), livedexperience perspectives, coordinated specialty care for first-episode psychosis (EPINET/OnTrackNY), and learning health networks for bipolar disorder—and evaluate how these models address fragmentation, variability in care quality, and suboptimal outcomes.
Learning Objective 2: Describe actionable strategies for implementing system-level improvements in psychiatric services by integrating lessons learned across policy, lived experience, early psychosis programs, and learning health networks, with the aim of increasing use of evidence-based treatments and improving patient outcomes across populations.