Surgeon General's Mental Health Report

The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Surgeon General of the United States and the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) are pleased to announce the development of a Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health. The SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) will lead development of the Report for the Surgeon General in partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health. The Report was officially commissioned on September 30, 1997.

This effort represents the first Surgeon General's Report to focus exclusively on mental health. The previous reports of the Surgeon General are well established as landmark publications on selected topic areas. Important examples include the Smoking and Health series, and the Report on Physical Activity and Health, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and released during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health (official title to be determined) will be a comprehensive public health document focusing on leading edge scientific and clinical knowledge and advances as practically applied to the determinants of mental health and mental illness. This knowledge will be the basis for recommending approaches for promoting mental health and preventing mental illness and/or providing state-of-the-art clinical interventions for ameliorating mental illness across the life cycle. These approaches will be discussed for application at the individual, community and provider levels. The audience for the report will be the general public.

In order to raise public awareness of the important role of mental health in our everyday lives, the Report will provide information to help individuals attend to individual, family and community emotional, mental and social well-being. The Report will illustrate the similarities between mental health and physical health, the value of prompt and appropriate treatment intervention, the positive consequences expected from intervention and the growing consumer involvement in the recovery process.

The Report will also include a view of knowledge gained in recent years from research on the brain, behavior, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and services. Special sections will focus on policy related topics which affect the field of mental health including parity and the changing service environment, and confidentiality and the appropriate use of mental health information.

CMHS and NIMH will engage a number of participants from diverse backgrounds and organizations in various stages of development of the Report. Information regarding the Report of the Surgeon General on Mental Health may be accessed through the National Mental Health Information Center at mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/ For further information contact: CAPT Patricia A. Rye, JD, MSW, Managing Editor, Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rm. 15-105, Rockville, MD 20857.