Today the Treatment Advocacy Center released the following statement on Secretary Clinton's Comprehensive Mental Health Plan.
Highlighting the crisis that faces our national mental health system, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced her mental health policy platform yesterday.
"We welcome the focus that Secretary Clinton brings to the failures of our mental health system," said John Snook, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. "As the work of Congress and now Clinton make clear, our mental health system is lacking - especially for the most seriously ill. There are simply too many Americans suffering and dying unnecessarily. Families deserve to know that this important discussion will continue throughout this election season."
Clinton's agenda points out that 40 percent of those with severe mental illness go untreated, resulting in devastating consequences for those with a mental illness, their families and our entire nation. "We applaud Secretary Clinton's focus on preventing the dire outcomes of untreated serious mental illness and her recognition that care must happen before someone is in crisis" Snook continued, "Suicide, homelessness and victimization are all too common consequences of our current system's failures. Clinton's agenda would serve as a powerful addition to the mental health reform currently being considered in Congress."
Clinton's agenda also devotes significant attention to the decriminalization of mental illness, highlighting the Treatment Advocacy Center's work showing that there are more individuals with a mental illness in county jails today than in our state and local psychiatric hospitals. "Decriminalizing mental illness has long been a priority for the Treatment Advocacy Center," Snook said. "Secretary Clinton wisely recognizes that jails and prisons are the worst possible places to treat mental illness and that our mental health system's failures have placed law enforcement in the terrible position of serving as our front-line mental health response."
Among the plan's other highlights:
- A focus on early intervention efforts, long supported by the Treatment Advocacy Center.
- A pledge to enforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which requires insurers to offer coverage for psychiatric illnesses on par with other illnesses.
- The creation of a national initiative to address suicide prevention. The Treatment Advocacy Center family knows too well that suicide is an all-too-common outcome that must receive greater attention.
- A White House Conference on Mental Health within her first year of office to focus greater attention on mental health issues, promote successful interventions, and identify barriers and solutions. We expect this program will build on the new work by SAMHSA, DOJ and others to explore successful solutions such as assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) and new strategies to address the needs of high-utilizers.
"We cannot commend Secretary Clinton enough for continuing to raise the visibility of the need for national mental health reform," continued Snook. "Such a focus would have been unimaginable even a few years ago. This agenda gives families additional confirmation that they no longer need to suffer in the shadows."