Our Vision

Our vision is to see schizophrenia and psychosis spectrum disorders universally recognized and treated as neurobiological brain illnesses.

Our Mission

Our mission is to create a movement for systemic change to improve care, support, and equity for the millions of people living with schizophrenia and psychosis spectrum disorders.

Our Guiding Principles

We pledge to become a leading Brain Health Advocate by changing the accepted language from behavioral or mental disorder to brain disorder.

We educate others on mental illnesses as brain disorders.

We will not use stigmatizing, discriminatory, or derogatory language that denotes any of the brain disorders as an adjective, noun, or verb.

We encourage everyone to speak up when they see discriminatory language or practices in the news or in public.

We advocate that all brain disorders require equal and comprehensive health care.

We treat all people with brain disorders with respect and compassion.

Our Public Policy Platform

S&PAA supports policies that improve access to affordable mental health and related services including, but not limited to:

Providing increased access to appropriate treatment by a comprehensive, integrated team of encompassing psychiatrists, neurologists, and other providers

Building on the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act by continuing to expand access to public and private psychiatric hospitals through exceptions to the Medicaid Institution for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion

Double federal appropriations for the Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) program administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Reduce incarceration of the mentally ill by authorizing Medicaid financing for the Crisis Now model and CAHOOTS programming to partner peer specialists and mental health professionals with police officers responding to citizens experiencing psychotic episodes