Hello John,
According to a bombshell report published in JAMA Psychiatry this January, a schizophrenia diagnosis is the second largest predictor of mortality from COVID-19, after age.
Today, we join the leaders of other mental health organizations who have seen the devastating effects of COVID-19 on people with severe mental illness in calling on our state and national leaders to provide guidance and funding to state and local health departments to establish COVID-19 vaccination programs specifically designed to increase vaccination rates for people with mental illness, especially those most at-risk.
These efforts must include mobile vaccine clinics for aggregate housing facilities, robust outreach to at-risk populations at homeless shelters and encampments, engagement by peer support specialists, training of community health workers, nurses and other public health workers, and efforts to address sources of vaccine hesitancy in this population.
Read our full statement here.
Please help us get this important message out by sharing our statement on your own networks. You have a voice. Let it be heard. Let those in power know that we are not willing to sacrifice individuals with severe mental illness to this pandemic or accept their higher mortality rate as inevitable. Our loved ones with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder deserve better.
Thank you.
