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A major obstacle to mental health treatment for many Americans is accessibility: the United States faces a shortage of mental health providers, resulting in federally designated shortage areas. Although digital mental health treatments (DMHTs) are effective interventions for common mental disorders, they have not been widely adopted by the U.S. health care system. National and international expert stakeholders representing health care organizations, insurance companies and payers, employers, patients, researchers, policy makers, health economists, and DMHT companies and the investment community attended two Banbury Forum meetings. The Banbury Forum reviewed the evidence for DMHTs, identified the challenges to successful and sustainable implementation, investigated the factors that contributed to more successful implementation internationally, and developed the following recommendations: guided DMHTs should be offered to all patients experiencing common mental disorders, DMHT products and services should be reimbursable to support integration into the U.S. health care landscape, and an evidence standards framework should be developed to support decision makers in evaluating DMHTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers with mental illness may be uniquely affected by the labor market impacts of the pandemic. The authors used data from the National Health Interview Survey (2016-2018) to categorize workers by employment in essential or nonessential industries and by the feasibility of working remotely. Workers with psychological distress prepandemic were less likely than those without psychological distress to have occupations where remote work was feasible. These individuals may face higher risk of exposure to the virus and, if they are nonessential workers, higher risk of unemployment. Efforts that facilitate safe, continued connection to the workforce may be of value to workers with preexisting mental illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2013 Japan designated mental disorders as the fifth "priority disease" for national medical services, after cancer, stroke, acute myocardial infarction, and diabetes. All prefectures will be required to assess local mental health needs and develop necessaiy service components. This column provides an overview of the Regional Health Care Strategic Plan in the context of mental health and welfare reforms. The goals of the plan are to alter the balance between institutional and community-based care for patients with severe and persistent mental disorders, integrate general medical and mental health care, and support greater independence for people with mental disorders. It is a political challenge for Japan to reallocate resources to rebalance care services while maintaming free access to care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the proposals of John Talbott and Steven Sharfstein on financing care and support of people with mental illness. Centralization of responsibility and accountability for the care of people with severe mental disorders; Separation of funding and management of care for people with severe mental illness; Combination of public funds into a single budget.

The article discusses three reports in the issue which are concerned with the economic and policy implications for mental health delivery of the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act including one by Garfield, one by McGuire and Sinaiko and one by Druss and Mauer.