Fact Sheets: Spending Money in All the Wrong Places

Posted on April 14, 2004

TO: Editors, Producers, Reporters

FROM:
Joel Miller
Acting Director
NAMI Policy Research Institute
703-600-1109 [email protected]

RE: Fact Sheets: Spending Money in All the Wrong Places

Two of the most important but often unexplored stories about failures in the mental health care system are the shift in costs to other sectors of society—and the degree to which mental illnesses represent a dimension of broader problems in American society, such as unemployment.

As part of the Campaign for the Mind of America, NAMI’s Policy Research Institute has prepared six fact sheets on these issues. A copy of the fact sheet on Hospital Emergency Departments is attached. The full set can be reviewed at www.nami.org/costshifts. Other topics include:

• Homelessness
• Jails & Prisons
• School Failure
• Unemployment
• Uninsured

The challenge today is to make smart choices with the broadest possible public benefits. That’s what NAMI’s Campaign for the Mind of America is fighting for at the national and state levels, while raising greater awareness about the costs of untreated mental illnesses. Please let us know if we can assist you in exploring these issues.

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