The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has released a new report, Grading the States, assessing the nation’s public mental health care system for adults.
The average grade in 2009 for the United States was a D. This grade has not budged from the D the US received from NAMI in 2006. Fourteen states improved their grades in 2009. Twelve states fell backwards.
This national grade, an average of the state grades, reflects our country’s utter neglect of its most vulnerable citizens. The lack of improvement over time brings into sharp relief our complete failure to take charge of an ineffective system and begin to transform it.
Michael J. Fitzpatrick, NAMI’s executive director, said:
Mental health care in America is in crisis. Even states that have worked hard to build life-saving, recovery-oriented systems of care stand to see their progress wiped out.
Ironically, state budget cuts occur during a time of economic crisis when mental heath services are needed even more urgently than before. It is a vicious cycle that can lead to ruin. States need to move forward, not retreat.
Too many people living with mental illness end up hospitalized, on the street, in jail or dead. We need governors and legislators willing to make investments in change.
This post provides details of the NAMI report, makes recommendations, and analyzes the implications of this dire situation for mental health in America.
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