Marshall Hubsher Discusses Prevention in Mental Health

Mental health is essential for individual and public health. The risk factors for developing mental health problems including genetic, environmental (pre and post-natal), social risks, trauma, insufficient stimulation, general adversity and stressful life events, and drug abuse. According to Dr. Marshall Hubsher, a psychiatrist with over three decades of experience in treating and preventing mental illnesses, about one in eight people or 970 million individuals suffered from some sort of mental disorder in 2017, and the numbers seeking treatment are soaring. The problems of mental illness are still immense. In this country, it is estimated that 20 percent of adults suffer from an active mental disorder in a given year, and 32 percent can be expected to have such an illness sometime during their life. To improve mental health, promotion, prevention, and the treatment of disease are required.

Studies around the country prove over and over again that we are able to prevent or mitigate the effects of mental illness and allow individuals to live fulfilling, productive lives in the community. From the influence of genetics and prenatal health all the way into early adulthood, we are learning more about the critical points in brain development and life experiences that increase the risk for or provide protection against the development of mental health disorders.

However, mental health is still poorly resourced compared with physical health, and it is decades behind in terms of prevention. Prevention is much less developed in mental disorders than in other areas of medicine. The revolution in personal fitness, diet and medicine over the past 50 years has transformed physical health, but that there have been few similar efforts to keep people well mentally. Far more attention should be devoted to preventing mental illness rather than simply treating it as it arises, says psychiatrist expert Marshall Hubsher, who over the course of his career as a psychologist, he has been using a wide variety of methods including medications, psychotherapy or talk therapy, psychosocial interventions and more, depending on each individual case.

Prevention in mental health aims to reduce the incidence, prevalence, and recurrence of mental health disorders and their associated disability. Preventive interventions are based on modifying risk exposure and strengthening the coping mechanisms of the individual.

When it comes to prevention in mental health, Marshall Hubsher recommends investing during critical periods of development (the prenatal period, childhood, and adolescence through early adulthood) and to focus on building resilience. Addressing mental health begins before birth. Throughout the prenatal period and into the first years of life, a child’s brain and body develop rapidly, leaving the child particularly vulnerable to outside influences. The infant brain is developing abilities like language and motor skills with feedback from external sources, and is more vulnerable to substances than the brains of older children and adults. While the changes from conception to early childhood are obvious from the outside, research on brain development continues to show us why this period is so important for later brain architecture and future functioning.