The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill ("NAMI") has published a national survey ranking the funding of mental health systems in the 50 states. The results are sobering:
"NAMI presents this first comprehensive state-by-state analysis of mental health care systems in 15 years. Every U.S. state has been scored on 39 specific criteria resulting in an overall grade and four sub-category grades for each state. The national average grade is D. Five states receive grades in the B range. Eight receive Fs. None received As. "
Each of the rankings includes urgent action statements needed in your state, My great state of Illinois received a grade of F and ranked 44th for suicides and near the bottom in per capita spending. This kind of data should be used as a basis for a legislative agenda. In the special education arena, hearing officers should be made aware of this stark lack of services making it that much more urgent that students receive as much as possible through their IEPs to address mental health issues. No hearing officer or for that matter school personnel should have the false impression that "out there" services are well funded and available. This survey shows that is abundantly not the case.
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