Digital Mental Health and COVID-19: Using Technology Today to Accelerate the Curve on Access and Quality Tomorrow.

As interest in and use of telehealth during the COVID-19 global pandemic increase, the potential of digital health to increase access and quality of mental health is becoming clear. Although the world today must "flatten the curve" of spread of the virus, we argue that now is the time to "accelerate and bend the curve" on digital health. Increased investments in digital health today will yield unprecedented access to high-quality mental health care. Focusing on personal experiences and projects from our diverse authorship team, we share selected examples of digital health innovations while acknowledging that no single piece can discuss all the impressive global efforts past and present. Exploring the success of telehealth during the present crisis and how technologies like apps can soon play a larger role, we discuss the need for workforce training, high-quality evidence, and digital equity among other factors critical for bending the curve further.

Wellness and recovery programs: a model of self-advocacy for people living with mental illness.

People living with mental illnesses, their family members, and advocacy groups have long encouraged the mental health system to adopt a greater focus on wellness and recovery. A superficial interpretation of wellness and recovery may cause some clinicians to devalue the possibility and importance of wellness and recovery for the people they serve, and this may inhibit or disrupt the development of a working therapeutic relationship. This column reviews definitions of wellness and recovery and their applicability to serious mental illnesses and provides an overview of several programs that promote wellness and recovery. In addition to peer-led courses, ongoing peer support and a range of applications for mobile devices can help consumers lead a self-directed and affirming life that facilitates symptom management and reduction and maximizes wellness. By understanding wellness and recovery and how people living with mental illnesses achieve these goals, psychiatrists may build rapport with their patients and improve outcomes. By familiarizing oneself with new resources available to people with serious mental illness, mental health clinicians may be able to suggest supports that extend far beyond the time constraints of our current treatment model.