The RAISE study is a game-changer.

I will tell everyone I meet about how this study proves that getting the right treatment right away results in a better recovery outcome.

We are now at a fork in the road. We and our treatment providers can continue to go down the same failed path. Or we can set out on the road that now lies before us: hope not hell, dignity instead of permanent disability.

The news about the RAISE study has forced me to consider taking the blogs in a new direction.

From now on: I will focus on right here, right now and what’s possible.

I will write and talk and act with the expectation that I and others living with mental illnesses are accorded the right to individualized treatment as soon as we’re diagnosed.

This expectation will impact my focus in the blogs. It has gotten “old hat” to write about the failures. That history of failed treatment, of cookie-cutter treatment, of the denial of treatment rightly should have an expiration date stamped “Today.”

As always, I will use a sense of humor to impart the wisdom I’ve gained living in recovery for 28 years now.

It’s time to move forward. It’s time for treatment providers to use the asset model approach to devise treatment plans created with input from the very patients whose lives are at stake.

We cannot wait any longer for our providers to “get with the program.” We must assert our right to be given the right treatment right away.

I’ll end here with this:

Expect respect. Strive for excellence: in your life as a person and in your treatment as a patient.