As interest in and use of telehealth during the COVID-19 global pandemic increase, the potential of digital health to increase access and quality of mental health is becoming clear. Although the world today must “flatten the curve” of spread of the virus, we argue that now is the time to “accelerate and bend the curve” on digital health. Increased investments in digital health today will yield unprecedented access to high-quality mental health care. Focusing on personal experiences and projects from our diverse authorship team, we share selected examples of digital health innovations while acknowledging that no single piece can discuss all the impressive global efforts past and present. Exploring the success of telehealth during the present crisis and how technologies like apps can soon play a larger role, we discuss the need for workforce training, high-quality evidence, and digital equity among other factors critical for bending the curve further.

This article is part of a supplement entitled The Behavioral Health Workforce: Planning, Practice, and Preparation, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Workforce and financing challenges exist, yet opportunities, including among others those made possible by the Affordable Care Act, will continue to strengthen the peer support workforce within behavioral health service delivery systems. (PsycINFO Database Record

Current strategies for integrating general medical and behavioral health services focus primarily on improving the coordination of care and expanding team-based services. Absent from most discussion has been a focus on the workforces that provide the bulk of community-based outreach, engagement, activation, motivational support, and self-management: community health workers (CHWs) and peer support specialists (PSSs). CHWs have primarily been deployed in general medical care and PSSs in behavioral health care. Understanding the unique contributions that CHWs and PSS provide for health promotion and wellness and improved population health outcomes is an important challenge. This Open Forum reviews the key elements of peer status as a way to help illustrate the differences between these workforces and the best deployment strategies for each workforce. A framework is proposed that outlines key support roles provided by the CHW and PSS workforces.

This article provides a brief overview of the development of consumer and family advocacy activity during the past 40 years, mentioning the involvement of these groups in the treatment and research arenas and describing a dearth of such activities related to matters of diagnosis. In an attempt to address this relative inattention to diagnostic issues, the article continues by proffering a relative personal account and then reporting the results of a quasi-qualitative study that collected opinions about the diagnostic process from a selected sample of consumers. The results of the latter process indicate that these consumers' opinions primarily focus on issues of billing and insurance, labeling and stigma, axis issues, and multiple and/or changing diagnoses. The article concludes with guarded recommendations as to how mental health professionals can possibly improve the process of diagnosing persons with mental illnesses.