Mental Health PlaybookManhattan Institute
- Geographic Focus: Federal policy and major urban areas, particularly New York City.
- Mission: The Manhattan Institute is a leading think tank dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty and the rule of law in America and its great cities.
- People Served: Federal, state and local policymakers and the media.
- Focus Areas and Core Competencies: Policy research and advocacy.
Impact Statement
The Manhattan Institute is leading the conversation on the intersection of mental health and policy issues affecting frontline services. In New York City, they have had considerable influence on shifting the mental health debate away from the “worried well” and toward untreated serious mental illness. At the national level, they’ve raised awareness of the need to reform Medicaid to address our nation’s shortage of psychiatric hospital beds.
A Conversation with Carolyn Gorman, Paulson Policy Analyst for the Manhattan Institute
Q: What is the mission of your organization? What specific areas related to mental health challenges are you working to solve?
We work to redirect attention and resources away from ineffective, ideologically driven policies that do not have strong evidence of benefit to anyone but are heavily promoted by a vast mental health industry (which stands to gain financially through these policies’ implementation). Instead, our work aims to shift attention and resources back toward individuals with the most complex and serious mental health challenges, some of the most vulnerable youth and adults in society—and most at risk of harm to themselves and others.
We believe that communities will be better served by a smaller, more cost effective mental health system, one that is more focused on the “hardest cases.” Though treating serious mental illness will have to be an expensive enterprise, we define reform as achieving more accountability for the billions in resources taxpayers are already devoting to mental health, and gaining far too little from.
Q: How do you describe the big goals your organization is working to achieve? How do you measure impact?
We’re proud to drive the conversation about important mental health policy issues through research, thought leadership and sharing our expertise with the media and policymakers. We take special pride in the relationships we’ve managed to cultivate with a broad swath of publications and policymakers, since we believe that mental health represents a unique opportunity for bipartisan cooperation.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges the organization has experienced in working to accomplish its mission? How did your organization overcome those challenges?
On mental health, some policymakers have the wrong ideas and others have no ideas. So, we work to inform and persuade, driving the conversations and making sure these important issues are on the radars of policymakers.
Q: What are the organization’s biggest needs? How can philanthropists help your organization achieve its goals?
Think tank work requires both playing defense by identifying bad policies and offense by promoting good policies. It also requires taking a long-term approach and responding to the daily news cycle.
As the mental health industry continues to grow, it will be more important than ever to have a broad coalition of stakeholders interested in practical, thoughtful and effective solutions. The goal is to provide policymakers a perspective on the worthiness of programs that is independent from the industry which stands … to gain from program implementation regardless of worthiness. Dedicated administrative and programmatic support would help us maximize the impact of our work.
Q: Beyond the organization, where should philanthropists who care about advancing knowledge related to improving mental health invest their charitable dollars?
In mental health, philanthropy can play a role both in reforming policy to make better use of the billions in public funds backing the current system and supporting direct community-based services. The most trustworthy policy advocacy organizations are those who tout their commitment to “serious mental illness.”
Examples include local chapters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance and the Treatment Advocacy Center. In the world of direct services, some high-quality residential treatment programs, such as members of the American Residential Treatment Association, offer scholarship funding opportunities. And anyone who serves on a hospital system board, or has influence over one of those systems, should push leadership to increase their stock of inpatient psychiatric beds.
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