real solutions to fix America’s broken mental health system

For the first time in 50 years,
real solutions have been proposed to fix
America’s broken mental health system…

HR 3717

The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act

Congressman Tim Murphy, PhD, a psychologist by training, has introduced comprehensive legislation to help individuals and families living with severe mental illness.

This bill, HR 3717, called the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, is designed to reduce the barriers to treatment for those who need it most.

HR 3717 WILL:

• EMPOWER parents and caregivers
• ADDRESS the shortage of psychiatric beds
• STABILIZE patients beyond the emergency room
• PROMOTE alternatives to institutionalization
• ENCOURAGE greater use of criminal diversion programs
• REACH underserved and rural populations
• FOSTER evidence-based care
• ADVANCE critical medical research
• IMPROVE the quality of community behavioral health services
• REDUCE mental illness stigma in schools
• INTEGRATE primary and behavioral care
• INCREASE physician volunteerism in community mental health facilities
• REFORM the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

SPECIFIC ACTIONS OF HR 3717:

• Requires states to authorize assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) in order to receive Community Mental Health Service Block Grant funds.
• Clarifies HIPAA to permit a “caregiver” to receive protected health information when a mental health care provider reasonably believes disclosure to the caregiver is necessary to protect the health, safety or welfare of the patient or the safety of another. (The definition of “caregiver” includes immediate family members.)
• Establishes a new National Mental Health Policy Laboratory in the Department of Health and Human Services
• Prevents federally funded Protection and Advocacy organizations from engaging in lobbying activities and counseling individuals on “refusing medical treatment or acting against wishes of a caregiver.”
• Requires the U.S. comptroller general to submit a report to Congress detailing the costs to the federal and state government of imprisoning people with severe mental illness.
• Increases congressional oversight of SAMHSA programs and seeks improvements to the programs it supports.

For more information on HR 3717, visit:http://murphy.house.gov/helpingfamiliesinmentalhealthcrisisact

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!

Congressman Murphy’s legislation is not simply Democratic or Republican. The bill addresses a humane issue that affects people eveywhere.

TELL CONGRESS TO:

Say YES to
Expanding Treatment Options for those with Severe Mental Illness
Say YES to HR 3717

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS ASAP AND TELL HIM OR HER HOW IMPORTANT THIS LEGISLATION IS TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES. FEEL FREE TO USE THIS SAMPLE LETTER AND THE ATTACHED LINK TO FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE.

Dear Congressman [insert last name]

My name is ________________________________ and I live in ______________________.

Please support HR 3717 because it addresses the obstacles families face when trying to save loved ones from untreated serious mental illness. This bill will expand access to treatment for individuals who miss out on mental health services because they are too ill to seek them. It will lead to treatment before tragedy.
We desperately need HR 3717 to help us appropriately care for our loved ones, who while in crisis, cannot care for themselves. It truly is a matter of life and death.

Thank you for your support!

To find your representative: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 What is assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) and how does HR 3717 promote it? 
AOT is court-ordered outpatient treatment (including medication) for individuals who have a history of struggling to stay in treatment. It is mandated as a condition for them to remain in the community rather than be hospitalized.

AOT laws are intended to help those individuals with severe mental illness who are most at risk for revolving-door hospitalization, incarceration, homelessness and other consequences of not receiving needed treatment.

The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act requires the five states that don’t have laws authorizing the practice of AOT to pass them in order to remain eligible for certain federal block grant monies.

A grant program to help counties implement AOT programs was originally included in HR 3717 but was subsequently incorporated in the Protecting Access to Medicare Act. This act has already passed, been signed by the president and is now public law.

Does assisted outpatient treatment work? 
The US Department of Justice has deemed AOT to be an evidence-based practice for reducing crime and violence. Multiple studies have found that AOT reduces incarceration, homelessness and hospitalization and helps people regain dignity and control of their lives. Independent research also has found that AOT can save sufficient taxpayer money to expand other mental health services with the savings. The majority of patients who have utilized AOT say it helped them; many credit AOT with saving their lives.

What is a need-for-treatment standard and what does HR 3717 say about it?
A “need-for-treatment” commitment standard authorizes court-ordered treatment for individuals who are deteriorating psychiatrically but have not yet reached a point where they are unable to provide for their basic survival needs or are at risk of endangering themselves or others.

Need-for-treatment standards are particularly important for individuals who lack insight into their illness because they focus the court’s attention on needless personal suffering and/or deterioration, from which the person is incapable of escaping without assistance.

HR 3717 requires states to include need-for-treatment commitment standards in their civil commitment laws in order to remain eligible for certain federal block grant monies.

What are the changes to HIPAA and how will they affect patient privacy?
HR 3717 clarifies existing sections of the HIPAA Privacy Rule and codifies those sections in statute to assure that doctors and caregivers can communicate during a mental health crisis. Currently, providers frequently misinterpret or over-interpret the guidelines, which restricts participation by family members and impairs the ability to act in the best interests of patients in psychiatric crisis. This clarification enables “caregivers” to receive protected health information when a mental health care provider reasonably believes disclosure is necessary to protect the health, safety or welfare of the patient or the safety of another. The definition of “caregiver” includes immediate family members.

Will HR 3717 put people in the hospital who don’t belong there?
The Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act strengthens the community system of care so people with the most severe illnesses receive treatment in the least restrictive settings. In fact, the legislation provides alternatives to involuntary hospitalization and imprisonment.

How will HR 3717 affect the trend of incarcerating people because of acts they commit while in psychiatric crisis?
HR 3717 promotes the use of jail diversion programs such as mental health courts and crisis intervention team (CIT) policing, which provides training in handling mental illness to law enforcement officers. These programs consistently have been proven to reduce incarceration rates in the population with untreated mental illness. Yet less than 40% of the US population currently lives in jurisdictions with mental health courts, and only 49% lives where CIT is in use.

How will the suggested funding cuts to Protection and Advocacy programs affect services for those with severe mental illness?
Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) was originally enacted by Congress to protect the rights of individuals with serious mental illness. Unfortunately, PAIMI programs utilize federal funding to create barriers to treatment through lobbying efforts and unauthorized activities, including counseling patients in crisis to refuse treatment against their physicians’ advice and caregivers’ wishes. Preventing treatment was not the intent of PAIMI.

HR 3717 redirects these funds and actually restores the original intent of PAIMI by prohibiting any organization receiving PAIMI funds from engaging in any form of lobbying or actively fighting against caregiver and physician efforts.

Read Joe Bruce's tragic story with deadly consequences when a federally funded patient rights advocate convinced a severely psychotic young man to refuse treatment and leave the hospital.

HR 3717 Bill Information

            

      

In Memory of Amy Bruce - we must continue to fight for reform

 (1​958 - 2006)

www.amybruce.org

"My Son Has Killed My Wife"

Late one afternoon in June 2006, Joe Bruce of Caratunk, Maine, came home from work to find his wife dead. He called 911 and told the dispatcher that his 24-year-old schizophrenic son, William, had killed her, that he couldn't find the son, and that he was arming himself for self-defense. 

 On June 20, two months after his son's release, Joe Bruce returned home from his office to find his wife'sbattered, bloodied body. William was gone.

According to the medical examiner's report, Amy died of multiple blunt-force trauma and chop injuries to her head. She was 47 years old.

Police arrested William Bruce at his grandparents' house and later charged him with killing his mother. He told a psychologist that the Pope told him to kill his mother because she was involved with al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Joe Bruce became William's legal guardian and gained access to his medical records. When police returned Amy Bruce's purse to Joe, he found an unsent letter she had written to her eldest son. It read...

 "I've always had this horrible feeling that I've let you down in some way," she wrote. "The only wish I have is that someday we can look each other straight in the eyes and say I'm sorry and I love you more than life itself." She added: "I will not give up on you ever."

About Amy and Joe’s son:

William said the first time he came to Riverview, he refused to believe he was mentally ill and approached the PAIMI advocates because he wanted out. 

The PAIMI program, operated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with a 2008 budget of $34.8 million a year, funds protection-and-advocacy agencies in each state. Typically nonprofits, these groups sometimes receive supplemental funding from states. 

"They helped me immensely with getting out of the hospital, so I was very happy," he said. He later added,"The advocates didn't protect me from myself, unfortunately."

These days, William is taking criminal-justice classes online through Colorado Technical University. He points proudly to his 3.94 grade-point average and says he hopes to attend law school to learn more about mental-health laws. William and his father talk on the phone almost every day. "He stood by me the whole time despite the horrible tragedy...despite what I did," William said. "I am the man I am today because of my dad."

While William believes patients deserve some protection, he said he understands his father's fight to strengthen commitment and treatment laws. 

read more here:

http://nebula.wsimg.com/8b3af4d4fcbf63616ab1a1a2206899bc?AccessKeyId=CCF6196A1C1D710D93FD&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

WSJ hits home run regarding the Barber/Pelosi 'mental wellness' bill!

What a well written article, BRAVO TO WSJ! Thanks for sharing the truth with the world – 

from one of thousands of families who lives in constant crisis and needs HR 3717!! 

The Barber bill will not help families like mine and is a waste of press time!

Again, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK WSJ!

Sincerely, GG Burns ~ A mother who believes in treatment before tragedy!

Please join me in thanking the WSJ at: kim@wsj.com

Read entire article here: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304431104579550193862909578#printMode

Tim Murphy

U.S. Congressman for the 18^th District of Pennsylvania

For Immediate Release: Friday, May 9, 2014
Contact: Brad Grantz, 202.225.2301

* * * In Case You Missed It * * *

Nancy Pelosi's Partisan Play on Mental Health

Allowing Democrats to vote for a Republican bill would in her world be to surrender on gun control.

By Kimberley A. Strassel

May 8, 2014 6:56 p.m. ET

Were this a case study in a mental-health journal, it might be characterized as Midterm Derangement Syndrome. As there is no such category, call it what it is: the basest form of Washington politics.

Arizona Rep. Ron Barber, a former aide to Gabby Giffords, led four House Democrats on Tuesday in unveiling The Strengthening Mental Health in Our Communities Act. Mr. Barber insisted his bill is a "comprehensive approach to long-ignored mental health issues" and a completely "nonpartisan" exercise. Which he would say, since this is in reality a Nancy Pelosi special: a raw partisan exercise in killing mental-health reform, shoring up midterm election prospects and protecting Democratic constituencies—all at the expense of the most seriously ill.

The timing, method and content of the Barber bill say it all. Ever since the Sandy Hook shooting, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a psychologist, has pushed a mental-health reform designed to find and treat the Jared Loughners before they strike. Mr. Murphy's subcommittee spent a year investigating every failed corner of the federal mental-health system and months more working with professionals, advocacy groups and families.

What has most characterized the Murphy effort has been his bipartisanship. His bill doesn't shy away from necessary reforms: fixing broken privacy laws, revamping commitment standards, increasing assisted outpatient treatment, overhauling that broken federal agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Samhsa). Yet rather than point fingers for past failures, Mr. Murphy has presented the bill as an opportunity for all of Congress to finally tackle a serious national problem. His office has engaged in extensive outreach, and since his bill's December debut has collected 77 co-sponsors—a third of them Democrats.

Mr. Murphy also had solicited Mr. Barber's thoughts and was even working recently with his committee counterpart, Colorado's Diana DeGette, in the expectation that she would come on board. All that ended when Ms. Pelosi decided that Republicans couldn't be allowed any victory that might present them as bipartisan, compassionate and leaders on health issues. Mr. Barber and Ms. DeGette received new marching orders.

While Mr. Barber presented the bill (Ms. DeGette is a co-sponsor), the Hill reported late last week that Ms. Pelosi and Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) were "deeply involved in crafting" it. A lobbyist told the paper that "Pelosi and Waxman hope this legislation will blow up any kind of continuing dialogue with Murphy."

That serves another Pelosi priority: keeping alive the dream of gun control. Liberals have been unhappy that Mr. Murphy has so successfully focused attention on mental illness, since it messes with their story line that the only issue is guns. In this warped universe, a bipartisan vote for a Murphy bill —an acknowledgment that mental illness plays a primary role in shooting tragedies—is a surrender on gun control, and potentially an excuse for some Democrats to drop that politically dangerous issue.

The Barber bill is no threat to these liberals, since it won't be heard, and is simply another Democratic spending blowout. Pelosi-Barber strips out every consequential reform from the Murphy bill—outpatient treatment, privacy rules, commitment standards, Samhsa reforms—and settles for throwing yet more federal dollars at "mental health awareness."

As such, Pelosi-Barber also protects Democratic lobbies that are currently feeding from the federal trough and want to continue doing so. That includes federally funded lawyers who fight to keep the seriously mental ill out of treatment, as well as to a huge array of Samhsa-funded anti-psychiatry groups, such as the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, that oppose treatment for those most sick. Pete Earley, an author and mental-health reform advocate, noted on his well-read blog this week that "all I heard yesterday in the halls of Congress were laments by different interest groups scrambling to protect SAMHSA and their favorite programs from being cut."

And then there's Mr. Barber, one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country. He was injured in the Loughner shooting and then won a special election to finish Ms. Giffords's term. Yet he was barely re-elected in November 2012, is in a GOP-leaning district, under fire for ObamaCare, a target of outside conservative groups, and is facing a rematch with his (now better known) 2012 opponent, Martha McSally. Ms. Pelosi gets to undercut Republicans, and Mr. Barber gets to put his name at the top of a mental-health "reform" that he hopes will help him in his particular district this fall.

The risk to Democrats is that this is all so blindingly obvious. Mr. Murphy's outreach and educational efforts have helped mobilize reform advocates, and they know what is going on. Democrats are already getting pushback from mental-health grass-roots organizations across the country and from family and support groups. Even the press is describing the bill as a political stunt.

Yet the damage is done. Up to now, the Murphy bill remained a rare cause for bipartisan optimism. Ms. Pelosi has now issued a rival bill that all but forbids Democrats from working with Republicans on one of most pressing issues of the day. When the next tragedy comes, remember this week.

Send your feedback to kim@wsj.com

Feedback mailed from Kentucky:

Sent: Friday, May 9, 2014 2:13 PM

Subject: Mental Illness Article

Dear Kim,

Thank you so much for the article you wrote on addressing the issues of the different federal bills introduced to help the mentally ill.  It is outrageous that politicans want their parties to win no matter the cost to Americans.  As a parent of an adult young man living with schizophrenia, I know personally that the mental health system in our nation is broken.  Tim Murphy's "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis" bill is the start to repair our mental health system and give many living with a severe and persistent mental illness a chance at a better life.  In doing so many innocent lives will undoubtedly be saved.

Thank you again,

Brenda Benson

2101 Spindletop Drive

Murray, KY 42071

____________

Joann Strunk, A mother from Lexington KY writes, "I hate to see this become a Republican vs Democrat issue. It is a HUMAN issue and this posturing is only going to undermine anything that might be done." 

____________


Dear Kim, Thank you for the eye-opening article. This is legislation which will change lives of those with serious and persistent mental illness and their families. These individuals have been suffering much too long.

Please continue to use your writing ability to cover this subject and reference HR3717.

Appreciatively, a family member and a mental health advocate since 1969.

Carolyn Helt Colliver
Lexington, Ky

Louisville Kentucky prison system examined in PBS film

One of the reasons I founded this Blog 4 years ago, was the fact that Kentucky had the fastest growing prison population in the United States.  

Far too many of these prisoners suffer with 'untreated' serious and persistent mental illness. 40-50% have anosognosia, a lack of insight or awareness of their illness -- which is the major impediment to receiving needed health care, even if it was accessible in the community!  

This recipe for disaster sets these individuals up to fail, sometimes at very young ages! We continue to treat these 'humans' with a brain disease' much worse than animals in pet shelters!   

PBS/FRONTLINE has recently produced a series of revealing films about this epidemic! Watch these films and decide for yourself. One important solution to this problem is HR 3717. 

Airing Tuesday night, (April 28, 2014), the producers will follow four residents of the Beecher Terrace housing complex in Louisville, KY -- as they cycle in and out of jails and prisons.

Mark Bolton, the director of Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, is prominently featured in the film, denouncing the nation’s custom of warehousing petty criminals.

“We’re locking up people that we’re pissed off at,” Bolton says in the film. “We ought to be using this space for people we’re afraid of, violent folks, people that are going to hurt me and you. We’ve gone through an explosion of jail and prison construction in this county, costing us billions and billions of dollars to build and billions and billions to operate. And we’ve come to a fork in the road where we can’t do that anymore.”

The film intends to highlight how the county’s culture of incarceration disproportionally effects inner city neighborhoods, like Beecher Terrace, where getting locked up has become an expectation. Reporter Claire Galofaro can be reached at (502) 582-7086

Prison State airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday on PBS.

Read more here:

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2014/04/28/louisville-prison-system-examined-pbs-film/8428609/

Click here to view the Frontline films:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/locked-up-in-america/

“The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” reports that 10 times more individuals with serious mental illness are in state prisons and county jails than in the nation’s remaining state mental hospitals – an estimated 356,000 mentally ill inmates compared with 35,000 patients. See Kentucky info here: http://changementalhealthlawsinky.blogspot.com/2014/04/kentucky-failing-inmates-with-mental.html

Why we need to overhaul the mental illness system

By LEISL STOUFER contributing columnist

Published: April 11, 2014 Updated: 5:28 p.m.

Imagine being diagnosed with cancer but being told you are not sick enough to qualify for treatment. Imagine having a serious medical emergency, but there are no hospital beds so you are turned away and denied care. Imagine having a debilitating disease, but instead of receiving treatment and being cared for, you are arrested, thrown in jail or forced to live on the streets.

These are the horrors and the realities that individuals and families who suffer from mental illness face every day. There is no other illness in America that is treated this way. We have abandoned an entire population of people. We deny them treatment, we walk over them in the streets, and we throw them in jail as we look away. For the first time in 50 years there is a real solution that will overhaul our nation’s failed mental health system.

Congressman Tim Murphy, R-Penn., has proposed the Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act that would dramatically change our nation’s approach to mental illness.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE AP

In his bill H.R. 3717 Congressman Murphy, a clinical psychologist, lays out a comprehensive approach that would address critical gaps and barriers that keep the sickest patients from receiving treatment. These barriers include strict Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws that prohibit family members from sharing vital information about their mentally ill loved ones with physicians. Murphy’s bill frees parents and family members who are caregivers from HIPAA restraints so that they can enter into a healthy dialogue with doctors allowing for a more proactive treatment plan and better treatment outcomes.

Read more here: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mental-609481-treatment-health.html

KENTUCKY FAILING INMATES WITH MENTAL ILLNESS, NEW STUDY FINDS

In few places are the consequences of non-treatment more visible than in jails and prisons, said the Treatment Advocacy Center

(ARLINGTON, VA.) The first national study to examine the policies and practices under which mentally ill inmates receive treatment was released today by the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs’ Association.

“The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” reports that 10 times more individuals with serious mental illness are in state prisons and county jails than in the nation’s remaining state mental hospitals – an estimated 356,000 mentally ill inmates compared with 35,000 patients.

Background in Kentucky  

The Eastern Kentucky State Prison in West Liberty (1,705 inmates) and the Louisville Jail (1,353 inmates) both hold approximately the same number of individuals with serious mental illness as do the two state hospitals, Western State (205 patients) and the newly rebuilt Eastern State (239 patients). The county jails are plagued by revolving-door inmates who are mentally ill. According to an official at the Louisville Jail, “their average stay is about 18 days and in the past five years they have been in jail 140 times” (Courier-Journal, Nov. 24, 2012).
Kentucky’s prisons have also had increasing problems associated with the rising number of mentally ill prisoners.

Photo by Jenn Ackerman

Such problems were graphically demonstrated in 2013 by a series of photographs, entitled “Trapped,” taken in the Kentucky State Reformatory by photographer Jenn Ackerman. They include pictures of an inmate in a spit mask, to prevent him from spitting at the doctors or correctional officers, and they visually illustrate how difficult such living situations are both for the mentally ill inmates and for those who have to take care of them. As Ackerman summarized it: “The reason for my project wasn’t to show how terrible the conditions were in the prison; it was to [ask], ‘Is it really where we want these men to get treatment?’ We need to focus our energy on finding funding for mental health before this ever happens. The only place many of these men have been able to get treatment has been in prison” (Slate, Apr. 1, 2013).
Current Laws Governing Treatment in Prisons and Jails

Prisons

Kentucky Department of Corrections (KY DOC) policies and procedures allow for nonemergency involuntary medication if an inmate suffers from a mental disorder and poses a likelihood of serious harm to self, others, or property, or if the inmate is gravely disabled.
Likelihood of serious harm means:
a risk that a patient may inflict physical harm upon himself as evidenced by verbal or written threats, gestures, past behaviors or attempts to inflict physical harm on one’s self, upon another, or upon the property of others. 

Gravely disabled means a condition resulting from a mental disorder:
(1) which causes a person to be in danger of serious physical harm resulting from a failure to provide for his own essential human needs for health or safety; or
(2) in which the person manifests severe deterioration in routine functioning as evidenced by repeated and escalating loss of cognitive and volitional control over his actions and is not receiving care essential for personal health and safety. 

Authorization of nonemergency involuntary medication is determined through a Washington v. Harperadministrative proceeding by an Involuntary Medication Hearing Committee composed of a nontreating psychiatrist and a nontreating psychologist as well as a high-ranking staff member who serves as chair of the committee. A majority of committee members must approve nonemergency involuntary treatment; the psychiatrist must be in the majority. 

Jails 

Photo by Jenn Ackerman

State law does not prohibit Kentucky county jails from administering medication involuntarily on a nonemergency basis. Therefore, county jails could use a Washington v. Harper administrative proceeding to authorize involuntary medication for an inmate who is suffering from a mental disorder, is gravely disabled, or poses a likelihood of serious harm to himself or others. Based on the survey information, at least one jail has used a Washington v. Harper procedure in the past. Typically, Kentucky jails petition for civil commitment to state or community psychiatric facilities.

Note: Kentucky’s high rate of suicides in jails prompted the Kentucky legislature to invest in a new statewide program for integrating mental health services provided to jails. One component is a Telephonic Triage service to assist jails in assessing the safety of an inmate with mental illness. Based on telephonic assessments, recommendations are made for additional follow-up services that may include a face-to-face visit by local mental health professionals to evaluate inmates for civil commitment to a psychiatric facility.

The consequences of failing to treat individuals with serious mental illness in prisons and jails are usually harmful and sometimes tragic, the survey found. Without medication, the symptoms of the inmates’ mental illness become worse, leading them to sometimes behave in disruptive and bizarre ways. Such mentally ill inmates are vulnerable to being beaten, raped or otherwise victimized; are frequently put in solitary confinement for long periods; and sometimes mutilate themselves or commit suicide. Mentally ill inmates also contribute to the overcrowding of prisons and jails and to the increasing cost of corrections for both states and counties.

Kentucky uses a committee procedure allowed under a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision for providing involuntary treatment for prison inmates with serious mental illness whose symptoms render them dangerous or likely to deteriorate into dangerousness. This procedure is now sanctioned by law for state prisons in the majority of states and for a few county jails but it is only rarely used. Barriers to similar treatment for county jail inmates who are symptomatic result in the use of restraints, seclusion or observation rather than medication, the report said.

In almost every state, a prison or jail is now de facto the largest mental institution in that state. In Kentucky, the Louisville Jail and the Eastern Kentucky State Prison apparently each hold about the same number of individuals with serious mental illness as the two state mental hospitals, according to the study.

“The lack of treatment for seriously ill inmates is inhumane and should not be allowed in a civilized society,” said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center and lead author of the study. “This is especially true for individuals who – because of their mental illness – are not aware they are sick and therefore refuse medication.”

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS:

•    Maintain a functional public mental health treatment system so people with mental illness do not end up in prisons and jails

•    Reform mental illness treatment laws and practices to eliminate barriers to timely treatment before people commit crimes

•    Reform jail and prison treatment laws so prisoners with mental illness receive appropriate and necessary treatment,  just as inmates with other medical illnesses already do

•    Use court-ordered outpatient treatment – identified by the Department of Justice as an evidence-based practice for reducing crime and violence – to help at-risk individuals live more safely and successfully in the community

•    Implement and promote jail diversion programs

•    Institute mandatory release planning. A recent study reported that inmates who are not treated following
release have an almost four times higher rate of committing additional violent crimes compared to those who receive treatment.

“The mistreatment of inmates in jails in prisons, including the denial of proper medical care, is a national embarrassment and has led to international condemnation,” Torrey said.  “Mentally ill individuals who end up in prison or jail should be treated for their mental illness just as they should be treated for their diabetes or hypertension.”

The full report is available at: www.tacreports.org/treatment-behind-bars.

********************

The Treatment Advocacy Center is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illnesses. The nonprofit promotes laws, policies and practices for the delivery of psychiatric care and supports the development of innovative treatments for and research into the causes of severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The organization does not accept money from pharmaceutical companies. The American Psychiatric Association awarded the Treatment Advocacy Center its 2006 presidential commendation for "sustained extraordinary advocacy on behalf of the most vulnerable mentally ill patients who lack the insight to seek and continue effective care and benefit from assisted outpatient treatment.”