First, I would make it my goal to make labels of mental illness not so negative, I happen to feel many people are afraid to seek help because they fear what people may think if they have a mental illness. I would urge shows like the doctors, Dr. Phil, and similar talk shows to not only show negative stories with people dealing with mental issues but show equal amount of positive stories of people who are trying to fight their disorders and make a positive contribution to the world.
Secondly I would do what I could to push for real affordable mental health care, not just treatment visits, but push to make medication more affordable and make it easier for patients to understand what the medications they are taking is meant to do and why it is important for them to take their medications or occasionally make changes because ones body may get used to the dosage and you may need adjustments after a period of time.
Third I would do what I could to fund the continued research on the human brain and DNA studies, the more we know about our brains, and our bodies the better we become in fighting illnesses.
I would require them to gain a much better understanding of human psychology. They especially need to learn about spiritually transformative experiences. I think they need to comprehend that the normative majority is in a dissociative state and out of touch with reality. Explain to them that virtually every anomalously sensitive person could be labeled as schizophrenic, and that schizotypy is the key to imaginative and divergent thinking and likely a evolutionary advancement. And, that it is OK to believe in magic because in holographic universe projected from conscious thought where there is no matter, it is all magic.
I would also have anti stigma campaigns move from primarily focusing on articulate,photogenic, media savvy, society friendly types who are doing well after a little help, and have them be more proactive in pushing for less stigmatisation and more recognition of those who aren’t any of the above.
Of course, meds are developing which is good as it is in any technological area, I would not change anything, but the future evolution of everything will bring advancements. Many meds of the past have disappeared and new and more effective meds have come without so many side-effects.
I want to see a change to the whole structure of knowledge in medicine. I know everyone has their agenda, and this is mine, but there seem to be different etiologies for sz, and at the moment all types are lumped together. At the same time all types are separated from other diseases they may be related to. So there should be a more "interdisciplinary"approach. When my son was diagnosed, they gave him a couple of blood tests and an ECG. But he’s from a family with ALL the known auto immune diseases, and he actually has lupus symptoms on his skin, as well as photo sensitivity. How has this fed into his diagnosis and treatment? Did they consider any kind of autoimmune antibody testing, any kind of treatment that might lower auto immune antibodies? No, not at all, zilch, nada, nothing. OK, the APs alleviate the symptoms and make his life livable. But science? Not a sign of it. I would like to see a bit of ambitious science in psychiatry. That means looking at the big picture, finding the underlying cause, not working out which neuro receptor might or might not be misfiring, talking about another symptom as if it’s a big discovery. They are fiddling while Rome burns.