News and Commentary from the Treatment Advocacy Center September 2020 Below is a summary of recent developments and compelling news stories from across the country highlighting America's broken mental health treatment system and how to fix it. Treatment Advocacy Center in the News Criminalization of Mental Illness Treatment Advocacy Center Executive Director John Snook was quoted in a New York Times article about the criminalization of mental illness. “This is the only medical illness that we use criminal justice to respond to,” Snook was quoted as saying. Read more, here. Grading the States in the News U.S. News and World Report highlighted our newly-released report, "Grading the States: An Analysis of Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Laws." The article discusses the highest and the lowest-graded states. Read more, here. Rethinking Police Involvement in Mental Health Crises Treatment Advocacy Center's statistics on fatal police encounters were cited in an article about the need to rethink law enforcement involvement in crisis calls. Treatment Advocacy Center's Legislative and Policy Counsel Sabah Muhammad was interviewed for the article about her family’s personal experience of calling the police for her brother during a mental health crisis. Read more, here. Release of 'Grading the States' A new report card of state psychiatric treatment laws from the Treatment Advocacy Center, finds that despite bright spots, many state laws do not allow for timely, appropriate treatment during a psychiatric crisis and beyond. The report gives each state a letter grade -- A+ through F -- and recommends specific statutory changes to improve each state’s criteria. Read the Treatment Advocacy Centers national press release for Grading the States, here. Personally Speaking: Take Mental Illness Seriously Olachi Tiffany Etoh shared her story of how committing a crime during a mental health crisis left her tangled in the criminal justice system, and why we need to take serious mental illness seriously. "I implore all those who read this to take mental illness seriously and find help and resources before you’re thrown into an unforgiving system that doesn’t know whether it provides recovery or incarceration. One transgression in the name of an illness can turn into a lifetime sentence," wrote Etoh. Read her Personally Speaking blog, here. RESEARCH WEEKLY: September Recap DATAPOINT of the month 48,344 deaths by suicide in 2018 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were more than 48,000 deaths by suicide in 2018. This represents a 35% increase in the age-adjusted suicide rate since 1999, the highest since World War II. In addition to the lives lost to suicide every year, millions more think about it. The CDC reports that 10.7 million Americans seriously thought about suicide in 2018, while 1.4 million made a suicide attempt. Find all of this month's research highlights here. To receive Research Weekly directly in your email inbox on a weekly basis, click here. Thank you for all of your continued support of our work. Please donate today. Donate View as Webpage ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Treatment Advocacy Center | 200 N Glebe Rd, Ste 801, Arlington, VA 22203 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!