Prevention in Mental Healthcare
The quote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is commonly attributed to Winston Churchill. This is especially true in mental healthcare. If someone experiences trauma or neglect, this can cascade into other serious psychological conditions. Neglect as an infant or toddler can result in Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), which is when the child doesn’t develop healthy attachments to other people. Multiple stressors at once can result in a depressive episode, and if untreated can continue for months. A first episode of psychosis can develop into schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder without early treatment. A kid with a conduct disorder can develop into antisocial personality disorder as an adult. These are all cases where early intervention are preferrable to later intervention. Instead, the US, state, and local mental healthcare systems are designed to react to crisis. I am not saying that more people should be hospitalized against their