Fighting Disease:  The United States

The Mental Health Program

Under the leadership of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the nation's foremost champion for the rights of people with mental illnesses, the Carter Center's Mental Health Program, founded in 1991, works primarily in the United States to promote awareness about mental health issues, inform public policy, achieve equity for mental health care comparable to other health care, and reduce stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses.

The program uses the Center's convening power to bring together health leaders and national organizations to discuss important issues facing the mental health care system at the annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, while the Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum targets issues at the state level. All program activities are guided by the Center's Mental Health Task Force, formed to identify major issues in the field.

Since 1996, the Carter Center's Mental Health Program also has worked in the United States and other countries to help facilitate more accurate and balanced media coverage of mental illnesses to improve the public's understanding of these issues and combat stigma and discrimination against people living with mental health problems. Recipients of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism from the United States have produced award-winning books, newspaper articles, and radio and video documentaries covering topics such as mental health care for the homeless, suicide, and aging and mental health.

The Center also works at a national policy level to improve behavioral health care access and quality in the primary care system through its Primary Care Initiative.

In addition, since 2008, via its only local program, The Carter Center has been working with mental health stakeholders in Georgia to help bring forward solutions to help the state government address Georgia's crumbling public mental health care systems.

Learn more about the Carter Center's Mental Health Program (in search result format) >

Read the Global Health magazine 2011 essay: "Stigma Research To Build Better Mental Health" >

Read the 2011 Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report: "Attitudes Toward Mental Illness — 35 States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 2007" >

Watch the video: "Journalism Fellows Explore Mental Health Issues, Fight Stigma" >

Read the Associated Press news story: "Perdue, Advocates Laud Mental Health Agreement" >

Read the Wall Street Journal news story: "How Doctors Try To Spot Depression" >