As the upcoming presidential election approaches, the nation will continue to engage in heightened discussion about public policy. Seizing upon this teachable moment, the Scattergood Foundation joined forces with seven other philanthropic foundations to underwrite the development and distribution of a special report of The American Prospect entitled, "The Politics of Mental Illness." The report consists of ten highly readable, engaging and relatively brief articles by leading experts and intellectuals.

A copy of this report has been placed in the hands of every member of the U.S. Congress, as well as the offices of every state Governor. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who authored one of the articles, is taking steps to assure that every member of the Congress' Mental Health Caucus reads the report. Moreover, the report will be distributed to all the delegates at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions this summer.

While the Scattergood Foundation focuses on behavioral healthcare reform in the greater Philadelphia region, we understand that policies and decisions made on the national level have a profound effect on local decisions and actions. Hence, we are excited by this opportunity to elevate the discussion and raise awareness of issues that transcend the boundaries of any one community.

The full report is available to read or download at http://www.prospect.org/cs/special_report. Dr. Arthur Caplan, Primary Investigator of the ScattergoodEthics Program, contributed to the report. His article, entitled "Mind Reading," is attached as a PDF document below.

Joseph Pyle is President of the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, a Quaker-based, philanthropic grant-making foundation located in Philadelphia, PA.

The Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health was born from the recognition that the area of behavioral health ethics is woefully underserved. There is a great need for reliable and current on-line resources in the field. With the launch of this website, ScattergoodEthics hopes to fill this gap by providing a central source of information to those interested in the ethics of behavioral and mental health.

The ScattergoodEthics Program was formed through collaboration between the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. It is the only established program in the United States dedicated to exploring ethical issues in behavioral health. Our goals include providing a central resource for information on the ethics of behavioral health, offering training and educational materials to clinicians and practitioners in behavioral health, mentoring post-doctoral fellows, and conducting original research and scholarship in the field.

Behavioral healthcare gives rise to special ethical challenges. As all medical specialties, it must deal with the reality of modern medical practice – the uninsured, limits on reimbursement even among the insured and worries about malpractice. It must try to minimize the side effects of its medications as it maximizes the effects of treatments that are imperfect. It must concern itself with all the quotidian problems of clinical care in a convoluted system. In addition, however, behavioral healthcare must disproportionately cope with patients whose decision-making capacities are often compromised; family caregivers with a huge personal investment in the treatment and disposition of patients; treatments that themselves affect patient judgment and cognition; patients with impaired life circumstances, such as the inability to hold a job or homelessness; patients who resist treatment; and, among psychiatrists uniquely, the necessity at times of acting as agents of social control, confining people against their will who are deemed a threat to themselves or others.

These are just some of the issues encompassed by the field of behavioral and mental health ethics. The ScattergoodEthics Commentary will feature periodic posts on current debates, recent studies, and central topics to the field. The Commentary will host a range of experts, clinicians, and practitioners who will contribute their expertise and experiences to the discussion. Please visit this page frequently or sign up for the automatic updates to remain up to date.

The ScattergoodEthics website will continue to compile the most up-to-date scholarly research in existing and emerging behavioral and mental health ethics issues. We hope you will utilize the resources available – including the Commentary and Library – to inform your understanding of the issues and advance the dialogue on behavioral and mental health ethics.