For twenty years, the Treatment Advocacy Center has brought attention to our mental health system’s failures, including the criminalization of severe mental illness. Last week, the Treatment Advocacy Center joined eleven other national advocacy organizations to release policy recommendations to the 116th Congress and the Trump Administration as part of the Consensus Workgroup on Behavioral Health Issues in the Criminal Justice System.
The recommendations reflect our longstanding priority – getting those in need care before they are in crisis and require the involvement of law enforcement. As our Road Runners report found earlier this year, law enforcement spends a fifth of their time and nearly one billion dollars every year responding to or transporting people with mental illness.
The Workgroup’s participating organizations include the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Campaign for Youth Justice, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Association of Counties, National Association of Social Workers, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, National Council for Behavioral Health, National Criminal Justice Association, Police Foundation, Treatment Advocacy Center, and the Vera Institute.
The recommendations reflect our longstanding priority – getting those in need care before they are in crisis and require the involvement of law enforcement. As our Road Runners report found earlier this year, law enforcement spends a fifth of their time and nearly one billion dollars every year responding to or transporting people with mental illness.
The Workgroup’s participating organizations include the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Campaign for Youth Justice, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Association of Counties, National Association of Social Workers, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, National Council for Behavioral Health, National Criminal Justice Association, Police Foundation, Treatment Advocacy Center, and the Vera Institute.