Help will soon be available if H.R.3717 is passed by the U.S. Congress. Please join us on February 12, 2014, on the "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" Blogtalkradio show to discuss how H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act" would assist acute mental patients, their families, communities, and all taxpayers. Please call-in at 9pm PST (818)572.2947. Among other things, H.R.3717 provides for (1) inpatient psychiatric treatment using Medicaid insurance, (2) special training for police officers, which should reduce injuries and deaths during lunacy arrests, (3) a national awareness campaign to reduce the stigma associated with serious mental illness, and (4) implementation of assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs, which mandate outpatient psychiatric treatment for participants and provide subsistence assistance for food and housing. AOT programs reduce homelessness, arrests, incarceration and hospitalization by over 80% among program participants.
AOT programs, which were certified by the U.S. Department of Justice in March 2012, would significantly reduce America's prison costs, currently estimated at $75 billion per year. "Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill" members advocate for every mentally ill inmate and patient exiting correctional institutions or mental hospitals to be ordered into AOT programs for continued psychiatric treatment. This is how our most vulnerable citizens can avoid homelessness, prison, and death. The fact that AOT programs already proved to reduce arrests and incarceration indicates that AOT programs significantly improve community safety, relieve prison overcrowding, and help restore people suffering from acute mental diseases to more wholesome living.
H.R.3717 was introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), formerly a practicing psychologist. The mental health bill presently has 34 co-sponsors, only 4 of whom are Democrats. I would like for someone to theorize or explain why more Democrats are not cosponsors of H.R.3717. I posed the question to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in tweets recently (@koffietime) and plan to seek a reply directly from CBC members in my district. Support for H.R.3717 from the CBC seems warranted because deaths and injuries by police officers happen frequently to African Americans with acute mental diseases.
The H.R.3717 radio show will be archived at Blogtalkradio and remain available for public listening. Please join the conversation at 9pm PST on February 12, 2014 (10pm Mountain, 11pm Central, and 12midnight EST). Call (818)572.2947 or join by computer at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/13/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill Everyone with an interest in mental health law is invited to discuss H.R.3717 with us on February 12. We will continue the discussion on February 19.
Please read H.R.3717 and review more information about its status, co-sponsors, etc., at
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/3717 . See also H.R.401 "Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act of 2013," introduced by Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL).
H.R.3717 was introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), formerly a practicing psychologist. The mental health bill presently has 34 co-sponsors, only 4 of whom are Democrats. I would like for someone to theorize or explain why more Democrats are not cosponsors of H.R.3717. I posed the question to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in tweets recently (@koffietime) and plan to seek a reply directly from CBC members in my district. Support for H.R.3717 from the CBC seems warranted because deaths and injuries by police officers happen frequently to African Americans with acute mental diseases.
The H.R.3717 radio show will be archived at Blogtalkradio and remain available for public listening. Please join the conversation at 9pm PST on February 12, 2014 (10pm Mountain, 11pm Central, and 12midnight EST). Call (818)572.2947 or join by computer at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/02/13/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-ill Everyone with an interest in mental health law is invited to discuss H.R.3717 with us on February 12. We will continue the discussion on February 19.
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/3717 . See also H.R.401 "Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act of 2013," introduced by Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL).
JAIL IS THE LAST THING MENTAL PATIENTS NEED ... AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our quest to decriminalize mental illness in America. No one should be punished for having a disability. Please contact your congressional representative today and demand that hospitalization and outpatient treatment replace incarceration for the mentally ill people in your state. Support H.R.3717. http://www.house.gov/writerep
Please assist us by sharing this invitation and/or the url to our radio broadcasts with mentally ill people and their families as well as prisoner activists, mental health organizations, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, lawyers, congresspersons, students, law enforcement officers and administrators, and others who may have input or an interest in mental health law in the USA. Thank you for helping to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL.
Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)
678.531.0262
Seeking Dog Justice for America's Mentally Ill People
