This year, S&PAA is expanding how we convene our community—advancing from gathering experiences and identifying problems to co-designing practical, real-world solutions.
The S&PAA Solutions Series is a new national event series focused on catalyzing social innovation, advancing next-generation models of care, and developing modern tools and policies that measurably improve daily life for people affected by schizophrenia and psychosis.
Over the past several years, our SPRING convenings surfaced the same challenges repeatedly: gaps in care, fragile crisis response, limited access to evidence-based treatment, social isolation, and policies that lag behind reality.
The Solutions Series is our response—it’s about what comes next.
Launching in 2026, this multi-city series brings together people with lived experience, families, clinicians, researchers, advocates, policymakers, and community partners to work side by side to address the most urgent system failures.
Each gathering focuses on one high-impact challenge. No matter your role, your perspective is part of the solution.
Insights from the series will inform future S&PAA toolkits, educational resources, policy recommendations, and systems-level initiatives.
September 26–27, 2026
OCTOBER 16, 2026
Finding Common Ground: Shaping Research on Insight, Illness Self-Awareness and Anosognosia
FALL 2026
Digital Tools to Reduce Isolation in Schizophrenia
APRIL 2026
Navigating the Justice System for our Community
APRIL 2026
FEBRUARY 2026
Congressional Briefing:
Total Societal Cost of Schizophrenia
September 26–27, 2026 | Clark University | Boston Metro Area
The Games MATTER! Jamathon is a two-day immersive innovation event that brings together students, game designers, developers, people with lived experience, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and mentors to create game concepts and digital tools that address real-world challenges faced by people living with psychosis and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
Can games help reduce loneliness, strengthen social connection, build empathy, and teach practical skills that support recovery? We think they can. During this collaborative weekend, interdisciplinary teams will develop and prototype creative solutions focused on three challenge areas: Connection & Community, Empathy & Understanding, and Skills Through Play.
Whether you’re interested in participating, mentoring, or simply learning more about the intersection of gaming, mental health, and innovation, we invite you to join us as we explore how thoughtfully designed digital experiences can foster connection, reduce isolation, and promote recovery.
Sponsors
October 16, 2026 | San Antonio, Texas
October 16, 2026 | Time: 8:30AM – 1PM Eastern
Location: San Antonio, Texas
S&PAA will bring together people with lived experience, family members, clinicians, researchers and other experts for an in-person discussion focused on diagnosis disagreement, insight, illness perceptions and anosognosia.
S&PAA will share preliminary findings from two years of research and gather diverse perspectives to help guide the next phase of this work—including what happens when someone disagrees with a diagnosis, what paths forward currently exist and what collaborative care should look like in these situations.
September 26–27, 2026 | Clark University | Boston Metro Area
Fall 2026 | Details Forthcoming
S&PAA is excited to explore how digital tools, including game-based approaches, could support connection and recovery for people living with schizophrenia and psychosis. When the stakes are this high, innovation isn’t optional—it’s essential.
CTA Innovation House:
There are a variety of hotels near the CTA Innovation House (21 D St. SE
Washington, D.C. 20003). Use this link to find one that meets your needs.
The CTA Innovation House also is easily accessible via the Metro (subway), if you prefer to book a lower-rate hotel in Virginia or Maryland:
CTA Innovation House:
The closest airport to the CTA Innovation House is Reagan National Airport. You can take a taxi, rideshare or Metro from both Reagan National and Dulles to the CTA Innovation House.
April 23, 2026 | Washington, DC
On April 23 in Washington, D.C., the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance, along with the Treatment Advocacy Center, co-hosted a foundational convening to rethink how the legal system responds when mental illness and justice involvement intersect. The event, also sponsored by the CURESZ Foundation and the STARR Coalition, was the second in the 2026 Solution Session Series, Navigating the Justice System for Our Community.
Read the full press release outlining the vision and scope of this effort.
This gathering helped shape the early framework of the National Mental Illness Justice Center—an all-access hub designed to equip communities with model legal standards, judicial education resources, policy reform guidance, and technical assistance. The goal was practical: to reduce harm caused by fragmented systems, prevent unnecessary incarceration, and strengthen pathways to stability and recovery.
This was not a traditional conference. It was a structured working session where policymakers, legal experts, clinicians, judges, attorneys, advocates, caregivers, and individuals with lived experience directly informed the Center’s founding priorities. What emerged was not just alignment—it was direction. Bringing together leaders across the justice and mental health landscape, the session produced a clear set of priority solutions to address the fragmentation, inefficiency, and harm experienced by individuals with serious mental illness in the legal system.
April 22, 2026 | Washington, DC
Hosted in partnership with the Schizophrenia Policy Action Network (SPAN), our sister organization, this event is designed as a coordinated Capitol Hill advocacy “fly-in,” connecting SPAN and S&PAA leadership, people with lived experience, caregivers, and community advocates with members of Congress. Participants will receive advance guidance on federal mental health policy, effective advocacy messaging, SPAN and S&PAA’s priorities, and current regulatory issues (using HIPAA as a case study) and then meet directly with policymakers, bringing authentic perspectives proven to influence decision-making.
Building on interest from last year’s Policy Summit, we will prioritize outreach to key congressional committees and work with attendees to map their congressional offices and secure meetings with their Senators and Representatives.
Together, this day strengthens relationships on Capitol Hill, elevates schizophrenia and psychosis in national policy conversations, and turns lived experience into lasting policy progress.
February 10, 2026 | Washington, DC
On February 10th, on Capitol Hill, our auxiliary organization, SPAN, briefed advocates and congressional staff on findings from S&PAA’s new study, National and State Societal Costs of Schizophrenia, and what the data show about the real-world burden of schizophrenia in the U.S. The briefing highlighted the full economic and societal burden of schizophrenia and examined how gaps in early intervention, treatment access, and continuity of care drive costs across health care, housing, emergency services, and the justice system, underscoring the need for stronger investment in prevention and sustained care.
Thank you to Representative Andrea Salinas, S&PAA Board member, Tim Murphy, lead author, Holly Krasa, and our panelists, Donna Taylor and Davy Yue, for grounding the numbers in the experience individuals and caregivers actually live through.
We’re grateful to everyone who joined and helped move this conversation forward.
To learn more, visit: https://sczaction.org/insight-initiative/societal-costs/
For Corporate Sponsorships, we offer several options.
To learn more, please contact Anne DeGeorge at anne.pappas@sczaction.org