The Rhode Island Institute for Mental Health Excellence

A National Crisis 

Mental and substance-use problems and illnesses are the leading cause of combined disability and death of women and the second highest of men.  Despite substantial investments that have enormously increased the biomedical knowledge base and have led to the development of many new and effective psychosocial and somatic treatments, most Americans are not benefiting from these advances.  Far too often, treatments and services that are based on rigorous clinical research languish for 15-20 years rather than being used effectively at the earliest reasonable opportunity.

The Need for Collaboration 

Under the leadership of Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island’s leading research, clinical practice, and advocacy groups have joined together in an unprecedented partnership.  This consortium – the Rhode Island Institute for Mental Health Excellence -- draws from the scientific findings and calls to action from the seminal reports on mental and substance-use conditions from our time – Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (1999), the report of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2004), and the Institute of Medicine’s Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance Use Conditions (2005).   Each of these reports challenges our nation to bring the combined resources of basic, translational, clinical, and services research together with workforce training, community education, and public policy in order to improve the quality of mental health services for persons with mental and/or substance use conditions.