Role of Psychologists in Enhancing Care Quality for Individuals With Serious Mental Illnesses: Introduction to a Special Section

This special section underscores the importance of psychologists in improving and enhancing care for individuals with serious mental illnesses (SMIs). People with diagnoses typically included in the category of SMIs-schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and other diagnoses with symptoms severely impacting functioning-typically have layered marginalities and experience significant social stigma in addition to mental health symptoms. The complexity of challenges commonly experienced by individuals with SMI requires that treatment providers have specialized knowledge, training, and skills to provide specialty care needed to support mental health recovery. The included articles illustrate the breadth of the impact of psychologists on care for this population to date as well as the need to address growing care gaps for people with SMI through specialized training support to increase the provision of evidence-based practices and high-quality care.