News and Commentary from the Treatment Advocacy Center November 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 The Time is Past Due for the Decriminalization of Mental Illness Treatment Advocacy Center's John Snook and The Kennedy Forum's Patrick Kennedy wrote an op-ed arguing for the need to decriminalize mental illness and for the elimination of the IMD exclusion. Read more, here. Walter Wallace Jr. was in a Mental Health Crisis Treatment Advocacy Center's John Snook was quoted in an article about the death of Walter Wallace Jr. at the hands of the Philadelphia Police. “Pennsylvania is the poster child for how much of a problem this is. If someone’s loved one is really sick and they call to get them help, officials will say there’s nothing they can do until they’re violent," Snook told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Read more, here. NIMH Research Fails To Prioritize Schizophrenia Patients A new research report authored by Treatment Advocacy Center board members Drs. E. Fuller Torrey, John Rush and Michael Knable, and executive director John Snook, published in the journal PLOS ONE, finds that National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) clinical research has reduced relevance for schizophrenia patients. Read our press release, here. Personally Speaking: The author of my own story In a new Personally Speaking blog, Elsie Ramsey describes how writing has helped her cope with a loved one's severe mental illness and come to terms with her own depression. "Through writing and publishing, I’ve developed the stamina to withstand vast fluctuations in my loved one’s behavior while maintaining my sense of self and a life that makes me feel whole," writes Ramsey. Read her Personally Speaking blog, here. Meet the Intern Meet Treatment Advocacy Center’s newest communications intern, Grace Miller. Grace is a junior at Penn State University studying print/digital journalism and creating writing. She is also the current opinion editor at The Daily Collegian, Penn State’s student-run newspaper. Grace is passionate about Treatment Advocacy Center’s mission and hopes that she can create change while gaining valuable work experience during her internship. “I’m so excited to work with everyone at the Treatment Advocacy Center. I believe that the work TAC is doing is imperative to any conversation about mental health, and I’m proud to be a part of the team as an intern. I’m looking forward to finding my place within the organization and gaining new skills, while hopefully making a difference along the way.” RESEARCH WEEKLY: November Recap DATAPOINT of the month Unknown Unknown is the number of COVID-19 cases among people with mental illness living in congregate care settings, such as psychiatric hospitals or residential treatment facilities, an alarming data gap that was the subject of a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Secretary Seema Verma last month. The committee identified a lack of state-level data and reporting on coronavirus cases in congregate care settings creating a substantial gap in knowledge about the health and safety of these individuals. They are requesting CMS to issue guidance for mandatory, comprehensive data collection and reporting on COVID-19 cases in congregate care settings, writing “data collection within these facilities is critical to identifying these outbreaks in order to respond, save, and protect lives and urgently needs to be improved. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has the responsibility and authority to expand current reporting requirement regulations beyond nursing homes to include other Medicaid-funded institutions and take immediate action in response to serious health and safety findings…” 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!