Providing timely and effective treatment to people with severe mental illness is something the U.S. can and must do.  Failing to do so brings a huge a cost in human lives and in vital budget resources.  The failure to treat severe mental illnesses increases the risk of suicide, adds greatly to homelessness, drives up hospital costs, increases jail and incarceration rates, and puts too many at risk of violence and homicide.

The solution is not complex.  Provide treatment to those who need it most.  Assisted outpatient treatment is a critical step for people who are too sick to help themselves.  Assisted outpatient treatment has proven to decrease homelessness, hospitalizations, violence, and arrests.  Continuing and expanding assisted out patient treatment will reduce the need for hospitalization and maintain people's ability to live in the community.

There is a critical need to reverse the decade’s long trend of closing hospitals for people with mental illness.  This well-intentioned, but ill-conceived policy has not increased community services and other forms of treatment for people with severe mental illnesses.  Instead, it has shifted people from hospitals to the streets and jails, driving up costs for tax payers and providing substandard treatment for those who are in need of the best care.