The mission of the Family Development and Treatment Lab is two-fold:

• To understand the bi-directional nature of mental health disorders: how mental health disorders impact families and, in turn, to understand how family functioning and processes impact mental health. Mental health challenges in both parents and children profoundly affect and are affected by families.
• To develop and test family-based interventions aimed at ameliorating mental health symptoms and disorders, reducing family stress, and improving family functioning. Inclusion of families has the potential to improve outcomes both for individuals struggling with mental health problems and their family members.

In working toward this mission we continually seek to consider:

• A range of mental health symptoms and disorders in youth and adults, including depressive, anxiety, bipolar, schizophrenic and obsessive compulsive disorders.
• A lifespan developmental prospective on mental health.
• The context and stress that impacts the development of mental health disorders and symptoms.
• The resilience of families and their crucial role in promoting mental health.
• Treatments that promote family strengths.
• How to best provide access to mental health services to a range of families in a range of settings.