The direct and indirect costs of caring for people living with schizophrenia in the US are staggering. Our research details these costs, underscoring our country’s devastating failure to provide appropriate medical care for people living with schizophrenia. There is urgent need for policy changes to promote comprehensive solutions; we are working to pass and fund legislation toward this critical goal.

Without accurate cost data, the lack of understanding – and the associated underestimation of the burden of schizophrenia – will perpetuate the mis-allocation of resources and lack of coordination of care and supportive services that are the human right of every person living with this serious brain disease.