Serious mental illness is the driving force behind a host of issues that profoundly affect individuals living with psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, their families and society.
Yet evidence about the role of severe mental illness is systematically under-collected, overlooked or ignored by government agencies and other organizations.
- What is the role of mental illness in law enforcement fatalities?
- How many of the homeless suffer from serious psychiatric diseases?
- What is the impact of eliminating psychiatric beds?
- How do jails and prisons meet the treatment needs of mentally ill inmates?
These are among the many questions that official data barely address, if at all.
The Treatment Advocacy Center in 2015 established the Office of Research & Public Affairs (ORPA) as an educational program to answer questions like these by producing, publishing and/or promoting evidence-based research that examines neglected topics surrounding the most severe mental illness. We take pride in the impact our research has on the public's understanding of mental illness.
We aim to shed light on issues too controversial or complicated for others to address, such as the causes of mental illness criminalization or the monetary incentives fueling psychiatric bed shortages. Some of our findings have been so widely circulated they have entered the realm of common knowledge. If you have heard that individuals with serious mental illness are 10 times more likely to be behind bars than in a hospital bed or that those with mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed in an encounter with law enforcement, then you have seen our research.
Recent reports include:
- Grading the States: An Analysis of Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Laws - the only national analysis of involuntary treatment laws for psychiatric illness in each state.
- Treat or Repeat: A State Survey of Serious Mental Illness, Major Crimes & Community Treatment - surveys and analyzes of state systems available to individuals with serious mental illness who have committed major crimes.
- Going, Going, Gone: Trends & Consequences of Eliminating State Psychiatric Beds - represents our 4th census of state hospital beds, showing that we now have fewer beds, per capita, than at any point since 1850.
- Overlooked in the Undercounted: The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters - examines and documents the role of mental illness in the use of deadly force by law enforcement.
Additional resources:
To learn about developments in clinical and public policy research and to see our studies and backgrounders as we release them, sign up for Research Weekly. Follow us on Twitter @TreatmentAdvCtr #TACResearch.