Transforming Mental Health Care: Starting with Change Around the Edges

It is essential for those of us who work in health professions to recognize the good work individuals and organizations are doing to improve the delivery of mental health services in communities across the country. Despite their allure, new practices and radical innovations are hard to come by and resisted by many organizations. Programs like Mental Health First Aid and Make It Ok are examples of how a program can alter a person's understanding of mental illness. Without knowing about successes and new models of care, nurses cannot be as strategic in their efforts to influence meaningful social and systemic change. Changes at the edges of the health care system are happening in the care of mental illness. Changes must continue to be made that will eventually make their way into the center.