Re-Centering Rights, Recovery, And Evidence In US Mental Health Policy Carlos A. Larrauri Michael Ashley Stein Vikram Patel February 17, 2026

https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/re-centering-rights-recovery-and-evidence-us-mental-health-policy On September 10, 2025, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released strategic priorities that represent a significant shift in federal mental health policy. The agency’s plan emphasizes “lasting [] recovery” through “gold-standard science” and promotes the expanded use of court-ordered psychiatric hospitalization (civil commitment) and court-ordered community treatment (assisted outpatient treatment or AOT) as mechanisms for “ending crime and disorder on America’s streets.”