Mental Health Reforms
Dignified care for Americans with serious mental and substance use disorders requires access to inpatient and community-based resources. Unfortunately, comprehensive and effective mental health care is not the present reality for the one in five — or 59 million — Americans who experience mental illness. The U.S. mental health system remains broken, condemning those with the most severe illnesses to suffer without effective care. Too often, these vulnerable Americans experience a steady downward spiral, often leading to incarceration and death.
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Expanding Access to Mental Health Services — from Prevention to Crisis
Mentally ill or substance addicted Americans most often find crisis care in hospital emergency departments and are relegated to prisons and homeless encampments in lieu of effective treatment and safe, productive lives in the community. More than 1.9 million emergency department (ED) visits yearly are psychiatric visits. Of these, 21.5% require ED boarding at a cost of over $968 million yearly. Over 270,000 of the 1,829,000 adults incarcerated in America have serious mental and substance use disorders with an annual cost of more than $13 billion. 67% of more than 275,000 unsheltered homeless people in the US have serious mental illness and/or chronic substance use disorders. Treatment costs to taxpayers are approximately $35,578 per person — more than $6 billion annually.
Cost: $968M+ yearly
Cost: $13B+ annually
Cost: $6B+ annually
Americans with serious mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders deserve dignified care, both within their communities and from inpatient facilities when necessary. Unfortunately, there remain four severe impediments to that reality.
Key Impediments to Effective Mental Health Care
- Inpatient Bed Shortages
- Lack of a True Continuum of Care
- Insufficient Commitment Standards
- Lack of Data, Particularly Outcome Data
Congress and the Administration should structure spending to fund crisis-based inpatient beds, reform commitment standards, create a real continuum of community-based outpatient care, and track outcomes for Americans with serious mental health and substance use disorders.
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