Jon Stanley's interview with Schizophrenia Connection

Robin Cunningham interviewed TAC’s acting executive director, Jonathan Stanley at the 2007 NAMI conference. The following is an excerpt of the interview posted at SchizophreniaConnection.com

We're talking 200,000 people with [untreated] mental illness who are homeless [or one-third of the estimated 600,000 homeless population] and 300,000 in jails and prisons [about 16% of the total jail and prison inmate population]. In the general population, about 1 in 100 has schizophrenia and 1 in 100 has bipolar disorder.] That's partially because we don't have perfect medications yet. But I think just as important, a lot of people that need medications don't get them. And that's partly what we [at the Treatment Advocacy Center] try to address, whether it's doing court ordered out-patient commitment or getting to those people in crisis, but it's all for a lack of systems that are reaching out and getting them care.