Treatment Advocacy Center Receives 2021 Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychiatric Association
Arlington, Va. -The Treatment Advocacy Center, a national nonprofit that advocates for the elimination of barriers to effective treatment for individuals with severe mental illness, is honored to be the recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
The Distinguished Service Award is given in recognition of significant contributions to the APA and the field of American psychiatry. Treatment Advocacy Center was the only organization to be given the award this year.
“The Treatment Advocacy Center has been a David to the Goliath of a system of care and treatment for persons with serious mental illness that has failed to meet the needs of this population,” said Dr. Jeffrey Geller, president of the American Psychiatric Association.
“Not afraid to go out front with issues that could fundamentally improve the lives of persons with SMI but were not initially seen favorably, Treatment Advocacy Center has led the way to the availability of Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) in almost every state. It has and is doing so by nurturing the concept, educating all stakeholders, developing model legislation, lobbying for statutory changes, and assisting in implementation. Treatment Advocacy Center continues in these efforts, focused on expanding the utilization of AOT statutes nationwide.
Added Geller: “Treatment Advocacy Center has broadened its scope to a range of policy issues that impact the availability of nondiscriminatory services for all who deal with the challenges of those severe brain disorders we refer to as SMI. Treatment Advocacy Center is now prominently working to end the IMD Exclusion, which limits the availability of inpatient psychiatric beds through discriminatory reimbursement practices; decriminalize mental illness; ensure adequate transitions from institutional settings to the community; and supporting research into the causes of SMI. The American Psychiatric Association salutes Treatment Advocacy Center as a major force improving the lives of some of our most vulnerable citizens.”
“Since the Treatment Advocacy Center’s founding in 1998, we have never been shy in seeking to convince those in power of the need to focus on people with the most severe mental illness, a chronically overlooked population whose needs are too frequently ignored in favor of problems with simpler solutions,” said Lisa Dailey, acting executive director at the Treatment Advocacy Center. “We could not accomplish our goals without trusted partners like the APA, whose expertise informs our work, and whose members deliver the care we work hard to give access to.”
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The Treatment Advocacy Center is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness by promoting laws, policies and practices for the delivery of psychiatric care and supporting the development of innovative treatments for and research into the causes of severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.