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Mental Health and Illness

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Many diseases, injuries, and maladies are associated with psychological or physical impairment that affect mental health. RAND research covers a broad range of mental health and illness topics, including autism spectrum disorders, teen depression, disparities in mental health care, and post-traumatic stress (PTSD) among military veterans and survivors of natural disasters.

Essay
Mental Health First Aid: Training People to Help Others
An innovative program trains and empowers people to not look away from those experiencing mental illness, but to listen to them, reassure them, and encourage them to get help. Most trainees of the program in New York City were still using what they had learned five years later.
May 3, 2023
Commentary
Intelligence Work Is Exciting. And Traumatizing
The intelligence community needs to communicate to its workforce about the varied forms of trauma, how it affects individuals, and what resources exist to help. Protecting the intelligence workforce can help protect us all.
Nov 30, 2022

Explore Mental Health and Illness

Announcement
Community Partners in Care Receives Accolade
Community Partners in Care, a partnership that uses a unique approach to improve depression care in under-resourced communities, has received the 2015 Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Award.
Jun 10, 2015
Commentary
Social Media as a Tool for Reaching Veterans in Need of Mental Health Care
Reaching veterans to learn more about their mental health care seeking poses a conundrum. They are typically recruited for studies in clinical settings, so those who are not seeking care are not represented. Facebook may be a viable method to reach them.
Jun 9, 2015
Commentary
Veterans Battle Mental Health Issues After Iraq and Afghanistan
Researchers have made great progress capturing the consequences of coping with injuries sustained in the theater of war, but the emerging picture is shadowed in grays. A series of recent findings presents a bleak portrait of the cost of modern war to service members, their families, and their health care providers.
Jun 4, 2015
News Release
Prop. 63 Suicide Prevention Investment Will Save Lives and Dollars; California Suicide Prevention Programs Have Broad ...
A mass media campaign intended to help prevent suicides in California is reaching a majority of the state's adults and appears to be increasing their confidence about how to intervene with those at risk. In addition, an assessment of a companion suicide prevention program finds that the long-term impact could be the prevention of at least 140 deaths and 3,600 suicide attempts per year over the next three decades.
May 18, 2015
Commentary
U.S. Soldiers Denied Sleep Suffer Major Health Effects
More than 60 percent of service members don't get the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep per night. About a third get by on five hours or less. The military, and society at large, needs to recognize the importance of sleep as a crucial link to physical and mental well-being.
May 11, 2015
News Release
Online Training Can Teach Psychotherapists Evidence-Based Treatments
Psychotherapy treatments can lag years behind what research has shown to be effective because there simply are not enough clinicians trained in new methods. But online training programs can be as successful as in-person instruction for teaching psychotherapists how to use newer evidence-based treatments.
May 5, 2015
Commentary
Traumatic Brain Injury Isn't Just an NFL Problem
Chris Borland retired early out of concern for his long-term mental and emotional health as a result of football's well-documented link to traumatic brain injury. Hopefully, his bold move will lead to better prevention and treatment of brain trauma in football, but it is also an issue for young athletes, military veterans, and others.
Apr 30, 2015
News Release
Most California Residents Facing Psychological Distress Do Not See the Public as Supportive and Report Discrimination
In a survey of California residents facing psychological distress, only 41 percent believe that people are caring and sympathetic to those with mental illnesses, and 81 percent believe that people with mental illness experience high levels of prejudice and discrimination, both in personal relationships and in public realms such as the workplace.
Apr 23, 2015
News Release
Sleep Problems Prevalent for Military Members Post-Deployment
Improving the quality and quantity of U.S. military members' sleep following deployment could help reduce other health problems, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, a lack of consistent and transparent sleep-related policies may impede efforts to promote sleep health among service members.
Apr 6, 2015
Commentary
Mental Health Care in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
Depression is the leading cause of disability throughout the world and is especially prevalent among low-income African countries, where 75 percent of the people who suffer from mental illness do not have easy access to the mental health care they need.
Mar 10, 2015
Q&A
From Combat to Caregiving: Q&A with Kayla Williams
Kayla Williams talks about being a female soldier and the spouse of a wounded warrior, why veterans aren't broken and caregivers aren't saints, and more.
Mar 6, 2015
News Release
California Mental Health Prevention Effort Is Showing Positive Early Results
An effort to improve mental health prevention and early intervention in California is showing positive early results for programs targeted at reducing stigma and discrimination, educating the public about suicide prevention, and improving the mental health of students.
Feb 24, 2015
Commentary
Putting UK Mental Health Services on the Road to Recovery
If mental health problems are the most significant barrier preventing people on benefits from taking up employment, then why not transform how the system supports them? Policymakers could redirect some of the resources available to the benefit system towards improving mental health outcomes, and put more evidence-based interventions in place. The savings to the benefit system should logically pay for this investment.
Feb 20, 2015
News Release
Options and Issues Regarding Marijuana Legalization in Vermont
If Vermont chooses to remove its prohibition on producing and selling marijuana, lawmakers will have many choices to make about who will supply it, who can buy it, if and how it will be taxed, and how it will be regulated. There are pros and cons to all policy options as well as uncertainty about how different forms of legalization will affect public health and safety.
Jan 16, 2015
Commentary
Military Turns to Collaborative Care to Treat PTSD, Depression
Collaborative care has been an important part of Army efforts to reach out to those struggling with PTSD and depression. It has brought a science-based solution to an essential military problem and has helped thousands of men and women in uniform in ways that also nudge the larger mental health system toward greater effectiveness for all Americans.
Nov 19, 2014
News Release
Community-Based Mental Health Providers Need More Preparation to Better Care for Veterans
Most community-based mental health providers are not well prepared to take care of the special needs of military veterans and their families. A national survey of mental health providers found that few providers met criteria for military cultural competency or used evidence-based approaches to treat problems commonly seen among veterans.
Nov 12, 2014
Commentary
Compromised Confidentiality in the Military Is Harmful
Mental health stigma exists across American society, but the problem in the military is fundamentally different. It boils down to the jarring and institutionalized military failure to place adequate boundaries between the workplace and the therapist's office.
Oct 27, 2014
News Release
U.S. Military Making Progress on Reducing Stigma Associated with Seeking Help For Mental Illness
Despite efforts of both the U.S. Department of Defense and the Veterans Health Administration to enhance mental health services, many service members still do not seek needed care. Defense officials have made a concerted effort to promote treatment as a way to reduce stigma.
Sep 30, 2014
News Release
Type of Therapy Kids Receive for ADHD Depends on Where They Live
Less than a quarter of commercially-insured U.S. children prescribed ADHD drugs received any talk therapy in the same year they received medication, and the percentage is far lower in many parts of the country.
Sep 22, 2014
News Release
Private Effort to Address Veterans' Mental Health Needs Could Aid VA Health Care Reform
A unique partnership to support private efforts to provide mental health services to veterans and their families could provide a model for similar efforts should federal officials decide to expand privately provided health care as part of reform of the VA health system.
Sep 18, 2014

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RAND Topic:
Mental Health and Illness

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Marcela Horvitz-Lennon

Senior Physician Policy Researcher

Marcela Horvitz-Lennon is a senior physician scientist at the RAND Corporation and a core faculty member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She is also an associate professor of psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School, a senior scientist at the Health Equity Research Laboratory,…
Cristian Cardenas

Ph.D. Student, Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Cristian Cardenas (he/him) is an assistant policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D. student in the Community-Partnered Policy and Action stream at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He has an M.B.S. in clinical and regulatory affairs from Keck Graduate Institute and a B.S. in biotechnology with a…

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