Eighty years of national mental health policy: Exploring the inclusion of a human rights approach.

Mental health, historically framed as the mere absence of mental health disorders, has led to unequal treatment, resulting in more persons living with mental health challenges. This limited framing of mental health, often woven into policy and practices across a broad range of governance structures, programs, and services, has led to individual and collective discrimination and structural and systemic inequities, culminating in the infringement of fundamental human rights. Using a broader framework for viewing mental health (e.g., mental health as a continuum), the authors of this article propose that a right to mental health should form the basis of mental health policy. The article also considers the impact of stigma and discrimination and the implications of social determinants of health in forwarding a rights-based approach to mental health policy. The authors conduct a trends analysis of 80 years of United States' mental health policy and reflect on how social determinants and efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination have led to measurable progress toward achieving mental health equity. The Call-to-Action highlights opportunities to further support mental health and wellness through the use of interdisciplinary policy and practice recommendations that include the framing of mental health as a human right. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).