An estimated 4.5 million Americans have a severe mental illness, with 2.2 million people suffering from schizophrenia and another 2.3 million suffering with bi-polar disorder.  On any given day, 1.8 million of these people go without treatment.  The fact is that more than two-out-of-five of our most severely mentally ill people go untreated - placing the people who need treatment the most, and the whole nation, at risk.  From day-to-day family problems to the horrific tragedy that struck the Virginia Tech campus in April 2007, the failure to treat mental illness takes its toll.

Like with any illness, failing to treat a severe mental illness will allow the condition to grow worse.  Each day, modern science unlocks new clues to mental illness and someday even a possible cure.  Medical imaging technology shows us what happens when the disease goes untreated.  For many with a severe mental illness, they are unaware that they are sick at all.  Family members and other loved ones see someone with a beautiful mind fall into a downward spiral that changes their very being.  Tragic news headlines demonstrate the policy failures of a system that turns its back on those who need treatment.