Fixing the Troubled Mental Health System

Untreated and poorly treated serious mental illness affects the lives of individuals, families, and communities every day. Each year, approximately 39,000 people commit suicide, and the majority of them have acute mental illness. More than half of suicides are the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Many other persons with serious mental illness have lives of isolation, are homeless, or are incarcerated. Because of the stigma of mental illness, an inability to know that they are ill, or troubling experiences with mental health services, people with mental illness often do not seek or follow through with treatment. Here, Sederer and Sharfstein provide steps of how to fix the troubled mental health system.