Last year, Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, described what he regarded as the top 10 mental health stories for 2014. His number one pick was not a novel genetic or biological marker, or a breakthrough in brain imaging. It was RAISE or Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenic Episode, an institute project to develop "a patient-centered, multi-element treatment approach for optimizing outcomes after a first episode of psychosis." Insel was referring to early identification – a truly different treatment approach to serious mental illness than what has typified mental health care since the 1950s.
