Our insane mental health system

Faith-based finalists | The poorest among us are those who’ve lost their minds, according to psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey | Marvin Olasky

I first heard E. Fuller Torrey critique America's mental health non-system nearly two decades ago—and the evidence of breakdown has only increased since then. The mentally ill now form probably half of the homeless and prison populations. Exploited and victimized by others, and often terrorized by their own phobias, they are a threat to themselves and to others, causing one-tenth of the homicides in the United States.

Torrey, a psychiatrist who specializes in helping schizophrenic and bipolar patients, founded the Treatment Advocacy Center (www.treatment
advocacycenter.org), a national nonprofit trying to improve treatment of those with severe mental illnesses. He has persevered in helping men and women who are truly the poorest among us in that they don't even own their own brains any more.