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
Director of Research Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq published an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the need for more psychiatric beds in Pennsylvania to combat rising suicide rates. Treatment Advocacy Center's recommendation for the number of psychiatric beds needed for every 100,000 people was also cited. Read more here.
Policy Director Brian Stettin's New York Daily News op-ed urging New York Mayor Eric Adams to improve the implementation of Kendra's Law and to rethink New York's entire mental health system in order to treat the most vulnerable New Yorkers was quoted in a West Side Rag article about the recidivism rate for people with SMI. Read more here.
Director of Research Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq was quoted in a ABC 12 News article about the lack of psychiatric beds available in the United States. Treatment Advocacy Center's recommendation for the amount of psychiatric beds needed for every 100,000 people was also cited. Read more here.
2021 Impact Report
Treatment Advocacy Center made public education about severe mental illness and SMI policy a top priority last year. We recognized the need to make our work and ourselves more accessible to our local advocates — sharing our wisdom directly with our supporters and training them to become more effective advocates.
The theme of our 2021 impact report is Make them hear you, and we have been steadfastly committed this year to helping our supporters raise their voices.
There are 86 billion neurons in the human brain. Neurons are a type of cell that comprise the brain, which are not found in any other part of the body and come in various different forms. Some neurons excite or turn on other neurons, while others turn them off. Neurons are connected together at synapses to form complex signaling pathways throughout the brain and signal through molecules called neurotransmitters. The complex signaling pathways in our brain are what allow us to form memories, recognize faces and experience emotions.
