Project goals
Three aims.
One clear direction.
Our aim is that most people seeking help for mental distress or behavioural challenges will access support without being left feeling they have a broken brain or lifelong deficit that can only be helped by biomedical intervention.
There will be greater attention to and support for social and interpersonal solutions that help people manage their particular circumstances.
When doctors prescribe drugs to relieve mental distress or behavioural challenges, they will do so understanding that in most cases they are suppressing symptoms, not correcting an underlying chemical imbalance.
Project goals
01
Raise awareness
We encourage the public, medical professionals, and policymakers to think more critically about the use of diagnostic labels and related prescribing of psychotropic drugs.
02
Support practitioners
Help medical practitioners better serve patients through a solid understanding of what psychotropic drugs can and cannot do, their side effects, and the difficulty of withdrawing from them.
03
Change policy
Change government policies to reduce the personal, social, and economic costs of ignoring what patients — and science — are telling us about how distress should be understood and treated.
Ultimately, our hope is that a greater share of medical resources will be deployed to support the 1-2% of Australians who suffer serious mental illness and that the spending on less severe cases will be directed towards more appropriate interventions that target the underlying issues rather than trying to suppress symptoms with drugs.