Groups Join in Campaign to Transform Mental Health System

After more than a year of study, the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health released its final report last July. Its conclusion: the nation’s fractured and failing public mental health system must be transformed to move beyond mere crisis response to promote real opportunities for recovery for Americans with mental illnesses.

Responding to the report’s urgent call to action, leading mental health advocacy groups last summer joined to form the Campaign for Mental Health Reform. The Campaign was founded by the Bazelon Center, NAMI, the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), and includes 12 other national advocacy organizations committed to realizing the fundamental transformation envisioned in the Commission’s report.

Because they lack access to appropriate, voluntary services and supports, adults and children with mental illnesses now face high rates of school failure, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, arrest, incarceration, increased reliance on emergency facilities and suicide.

“Mental health advocates call on the nation’s leaders to capitalize on this historic opportunity to address the growing crisis in public mental health systems,” Robert Bernstein, executive director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, told the Los Angeles Times. “Policymakers have a choice—they can put this report on a shelf and continue the past policies of hopelessness, or they can act on its recommendations and make recovery-focused services a priority for millions of Americans with unmet mental health needs.”

Last year, the Bazelon Center and its partners in the Campaign for Mental health Reform highlighted the Commission’s findings in the media, in Congressional testimony, and in meetings with policymakers. Advocates now turn their attention to enacting the concrete reforms necessary to transform the nation’s faltering public mental health system into one where adults and children with mental disorders receive the services and supports necessary to live, work, learn, and participate fully in their communities.

“Transforming the dysfunctional public mental health system is an uphill battle to be sure, but it’s a fight we aim to win,” said Bernstein.

In Brief, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law newsletter, Winter 2004