Treatment Advocacy Center's Top 10 Mental Illness Stories You Didn't Re...( ARLINGTON Va. Dec. 26 -- For eve...),Health

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For every Seung Hui Cho, thousands with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder don't make headlines. More at http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org.

-- Mental health courts are a sign the mental health system has failed. To get to one of the nation's 150 mental health courts, you have to commit a crime. The courts are like wheelchairs for diabetics after limb amputation.

-- Requiring "dangerousness" is ... dangerous. "The requirement to prove dangerousness [before treatment] is both bad law and bad medicine," said Matthew Large, author of a new study. "It is bad law because dangerousness can not be accurately predicted and it is bad medicine because it delays treatment of first episode psychosis and as a result causes a poorer prognosis and a worse outcome for the patient and their family."

-- Housing isn't enough for some homeless. Giving a homeless person apartment keys is futile if they think you're an alien. "Housing First" ignores those who first need treatment. Minneapolis offered housing vouchers to 50 chronic homeless -- five accepted.

-- Violence and untreated schizophrenia are connected. Most mental health organizations deny the reality of violence. Yet schizophrenia patients are 10 times more likely to engage in violence than the general public.

-- Psychiatric beds are shifting from civil to criminal. Oregon's psychiatric hospitals dedicated 59% of their beds for forensic patients. Colorado requested $60 million to double correctional beds for mentally ill inmates.

-- Medical professionals sometimes opt for neglect over treatment. Too often, front-line providers fail to get extremely sick people into treatment.

-- Cops are expensive mental health workers. Deputies in Putnam County, Tenn. did 478 mental health transports last year. Each takes two deputies for at least
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