NAMI gives America a "D" in mental health care

From American City and County:

A rising demand for services, workforce shortages and inadequate resources are hindering state mental health agencies' efforts to improve their systems, according to the Arlington, Va.-based National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). As a result, despite some improvement, NAMI gave the nation's public mental health services an overall D in its most recent report card.

While 14 states increased their overall score with NAMI, most received a C or a D, and no state was graded higher than a B. That is because, even in the six B-grade states, mental health services officials do not know what share of people in need their systems serve, or how well mental health patients fared after receiving treatment. State budget cuts could threaten the mental health system further in the near future, according to NAMI.

However, many states are adopting better policies, and encouraging more evidence-based practices and peer-run and peer-delivered services. More information, including report cards for individual states, is available at www.nami.org/grades2009.