Each year there seems to be an abundance of new and improved healthcare actions that’ll provide people with the utmost care that they deserve. This reigns true for the mental healthcare field as well. Since mental healthcare is so important for people in the US, breakthroughs in the field are so beneficial to all. This blog will show you the top 5 breakthroughs in the mental healthcare field this year. 

Why Is Mental Healthcare Important? 

Life Is Better With A Good Headspace 

Mental health is an aspect of our lives that we never want to forget about or even neglect. It’s something that is so important to our overall well-being and allows us to live happy and healthy lives. In addition, it makes it so that we don’t have any issues thriving in any setting we’re in, whether work, school, or even sports. But, since there are many unknowns to mental health challenges, many breakthroughs need to occur before treatments and diagnoses manifest. Breakthroughs can be big or small. From a new medication being discovered to a new condition, any type of breakthrough for the mental health field is great! Some of these breakthroughs, like new and upcoming technologies, may need some time to see if they’re completely accurate or not, but for now, any sort of new technology is great for figuring out mental health conditions and how to treat them properly. 

Breakthroughs In The Mental Healthcare Space 

Emerging Trends and Research Findings 

Although mental health has always been a conversation that people needed to have with themselves and others, more recently, it has become a topic people feel more comfortable talking about. This is also a reason why there have been breakthroughs in mental healthcare. Some of these recent trends and findings include:

• Trauma-informed care. More recently, healthcare practitioners are embracing a trauma-informed approach to care. This means that more treatments and strategies will be used to ensure that trauma is cared for correctly and with support. And since many people in the world have experienced trauma, more breakthroughs are being made to help them with holistic approaches. 
• Blood tests for mental illness. New research has shown that blood tests can help figure out what mental illnesses you may have. Researchers built upon previous studies examining levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is a protein in the blood that influences memory and learning in people with certain mood disorders. Low levels of this protein were found in participants with depression, but this protein wasn’t the only reason for depression. So, these blood tests could possibly detect depression in the future. 
• Artificial intelligence in clinical settings. Artificial intelligence is slowly rising in many forms of our lives, particularly in the medical field. Some recent studies have found that artificial intelligence can detect some signs of anxiety like hand tapping and nail biting. And since they are evolving fast, they’ll soon be able to detect things like seizures and diseases. They’ll also allow students in the medical field to enhance their clinical experiences by using technology that’s soon coming to hospitals and places of work near them. 
• Virtual reality for chronic care and pain. Another intelligence tool coming to medical offices and hospitals soon is the use of virtual reality. Some hospitals are even using it to help doctors understand what their patients may be going through. It’ll allow them to increase their empathy for patients and even simulate health conditions like dementia and a migraine headache. It has also already been used in decreasing patient’s pain, such as helping women in labor and those suffering from acute or chronic pain. Through the use of motion games in virtual reality, patient’s are able to increase their use of physical therapy treatments as well. By moving around and by practicing real-life skills, they’ll be able to get back on track soon after use! 
• Telehealth. During the pandemic, when people couldn’t go to doctors to help with their mental health issues, telehealth was a big breakthrough. It allowed people to see their doctor’s virtually without letting them or their doctors get sick. This trend continued into the post pandemic world and is a great way to access illnesses while far away from the source of the sickness. 

So many different breakthroughs this year will continue onto the next. Some important ones that have evolved include the use of telehealth in medicine and diagnosis. By having this available for people, it can help them get over their fear of the doctor and allows them to talk about their feelings in a place they feel comfortable doing so, their own home. It’s convenient and something that hopefully continues for years to come. 

Although there are many different breakthroughs in the mental health space this year, these are some of the ones that are of utmost importance. The idea that blood tests can soon be able to predict things like mental health diseases is incredible, along with the use of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. With all of these upcoming technologies, the mental health field is soon to be technology-based and very accurate due to innovative and new technologies focused on just that.