(Sept. 7, 2017) Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price used those numbers to open the inaugural meeting of the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC) and to explain why he made serious mental illness a top HHS priority. Ten million Americans live with serious mental illness every year. Those Americans live 10 years less than the broader population, according to SAMHSA estimates. And citing the Treatment Advocacy Center’s research, Secretary Price noted the final 10: ten times more Americans with serious mental illness are in jails and prisons than in psychiatric hospitals.
It is difficult to overstate the potential this committee has to be different than other initiatives we’ve seen from SAMHSA in the past. Chief of which is how it was created: it was born out of landmark bipartisan legislation that recognized the federal government was failing the severely mentally ill. Consequently, the ISMICC is expressly focused on severe mental illness and the needs of the most severely ill. It also meets at the Health and Human Services agency and is led by the newly appointed Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Dr. McCance-Katz – giving the committee added federal credibility. And finally, it includes us! Treatment Advocacy Center Executive Director John Snook is one of 14 non-federal members of the committee.
The first meeting served to ground the committee in the seriousness of the crisis and the urgent need for solutions. In fact, the first report out of the committee to Congress is due this winter. Although this is a tight timeline, we are encouraged that the committee isn’t looking to shy away from important issues. In fact, the committee has already committed to taking up vital topics like assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), the need for more hospital beds, decriminalizing mental illness, addressing HIPAA and updating civil commitment standards.
The Treatment Advocacy Center will be your voice on this committee, but we need to hear from you. In the coming weeks and months, we will be soliciting comments and recommendations from our supporters as to the issues we should be demanding action on and the solutions we must champion. Together, we will finally reshape the federal government’s response to severe mental illness and achieve Dr. Torrey’s vision for lasting reform. We can do it; we’ve already taken the first steps!