Do the objectives allow for the advancement of new and emerging areas of behavioral research?
Some of the most promising areas of community-level behavioral research such as interventions to help communities improve their cohesiveness and “social capital” to improve health are not reflected in the current strategic plan, and therefore it is unclear how such areas would be supported by NIMH and flourish. A greater emphasis on such lines of research, as noted above, would improve the quality and quantity of research on community-level interventions. Do the objectives allow for the development of a training infrastructure to hasten the translation of basic behavioral research into clinical research? The objectives do not appear to fully encompass the range of needed skills and services to improve the translation of basic behavioral research into clinical research. Especially needed is mental health services research, and research in the area of rehabilitative interventions. Does the strategic plan build mechanisms to help translate research that will ultimately be effective in our
