News and Commentary from the  Treatment Advocacy Center January 2020 Below is a summary of recent developments and compelling stories from news outlets across the country that help to highlight America's broken mental health treatment system, and ways we can help fix it.

News Highlights

Drug Companies are Courting Jails and Judges The Atlantic recently quoted TAC Executive Director John Snook in their article titled Marketing Psychiatric Drugs to Jailers and Judges. Snook is quoted saying “If you’re a jailer, and someone says, ‘We’re going to provide you with a solution that gets regular levels of therapeutic medicine to a population that’s difficult for you to control”—in the form of samples of psychiatric drugs—“that’s going to be extremely attractive.” Read the article here.

New Tools to Avoid Lethal Force NBC2 Houston highlighted that "25% of all deadly police shootings involve a person with a mental health disorder" a statistic you can find in our report, Overlooked in the Undercounted.The story went on to discuss a new tool to help law enforcement diffuse dangerous situation without the need for lethal force. Read the story here.

Substance Abuse, Mental Illness, and Incarceration in Hawaii The Honolulu Civil Beat delved into the high usage of Methamphetamine among those who are in Hawaii's only forensic hospital. The story goes on to discuss the strong relationship between substance abuse, mental illness, and incarceration. The news outlet used our state page on Hawaii to find that "individuals with severe mental illness in Hawaii are two times more likely to be incarcerated than hospitalized." Read the article here.

Story of the month: Families and Schizophrenia

The Treatment Advocacy Center was featured in the Washington Post's Sunday edition cover story titled What Schizophrenia does to Families. The article recounts Pat and Anita's story of maneuvering the mental health care system for their son that has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The Washington Post used our statistic that "people with serious mental illnesses make up a third of the U.S. homeless population, 20 percent of jail inmates and 15 percent of state prisoners." The Washington Post also highlighted the work of Treatment Advocacy Center founder, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey. Read the story here.

RESEARCH WEEKLY: January Recap DATAPOINT of the month 35% decline in inpatient beds and 24% increase in suicide rates. Between 1998 and 2013, there has been an estimated 35% decline in the number and availability of inpatient psychiatric beds in the United States. In that same time period, there has been a 24% increase in the age-adjusted suicide rate in the population. Dr. Steve Sharfstein argues the loss of psychiatric beds and shortening of inpatient hospital stays has affected clinician’s ability to interrupt a suicidal impulse and the lack of capacity to take care of psychiatric emergencies has become a public health crisis.   If you are interested in reading the research highlights from this month you can click here To receive Research Weekly directly in your email inbox on a weekly basis, click here.

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