These FAQs provide answers to common questions about the interactive tool, the underlying data, and its intended use.
$COPE 360™ is an interactive national and state-level societal cost intelligence platform designed to help users explore and visualize the societal impact of schizophrenia across healthcare, housing, caregiving, employment, disability systems, homelessness, justice-system involvement, and related public systems.
$COPE stands for:
Schizophrenia Cost Perspective Engine
The platform was developed to help users see where schizophrenia-related costs emerge, accumulate, and shift across interconnected systems and sectors.
$COPE 360 was developed in 2026 by the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance as part of the organization’s Total Cost of Schizophrenia research initiative.
The platform is intended for:
Users can:
Start with National Impact if you want the overall picture of schizophrenia-related impact across systems.
Use Compare States if you need geographic differences.
Use Analyze Systems when exploring specific domains such as healthcare, caregiving, housing, employment, justice involvement, or public supports.
No. $COPE 360 is designed for exploration. Users may move directly to the data most relevant to their question.No. $COPE 360 is designed for exploration. Users may move directly to the data most relevant to their question.No. $COPE 360 is designed for exploration. Users may move directly to the data most relevant to their question.
If your question is:
“How large is the overall impact?” → National Impact
“How does my state compare?” → Compare States
“Where are costs occurring?” → Analyze Systems
National Impact → Compare States → Analyze Systems
No. Users can move directly to specific comparisons, visualizations, or domains.
Yes, but two at a time. The comparison view allows side-by-side evaluation of societal impact estimates and system impacts.
Yes. Filters and selections may persist across views so users can move from broad national context into detailed state analysis.
Open Compare States, select a primary state and comparison state, then choose the indicators or domains to evaluate.
Yes. Users may focus on individual domains including:
The visualization updates display only the selected cost area and its contribution to overall impact.
Depending on the analysis view, systems may include:
Cross-system analysis examines how schizophrenia-related impacts extend across interconnected public, healthcare, social, economic, and community systems rather than existing within healthcare alone.
Yes. Many visualizations allow filtering by:
Yes. Users can begin with national impact, move into state comparisons, and drill down into domain-level contributors.
Yes. A distinguishing feature of the platform is integration of caregiver impact into the broader societal cost framework.
Caregiver-related impacts may include:
Research demonstrates that schizophrenia-related impacts extend beyond healthcare alone. Families frequently experience financial, emotional, social, and workforce effects that contribute substantially to total impact.
Yes. Users may isolate caregiver-related impact and examine:
Yes. $COPE 360 includes impacts beyond healthcare including caregiving, employment disruption, productivity loss, housing instability, homelessness, and justice involvement.
Unpaid labor reflects time family members or informal caregivers spend providing support without direct financial compensation.
Productivity loss reflects workforce impacts associated with missed work, reduced work participation, reduced efficiency, or caregiving-related employment disruption.
Out-of-pocket costs are expenses directly paid by caregivers or families that are not reimbursed through insurance or public programs.
Major life event impacts reflect burden associated with significant events such as hospitalization, housing changes, homelessness, employment disruption, justice involvement, or other high-impact support needs.
Absenteeism reflects work time missed because of caregiving responsibilities.
Presenteeism reflects reduced productivity while remaining at work.
The platform integrates:
No. The estimates reflect modeled societal impact based on currently available evidence and economic analyses.
They support comparative understanding and strategic discussion rather than accounting measures.
State estimates are adjusted using localized demographic, wage, utilization, cost-of-living, disability, housing, and population indicators where sufficiently robust data exist.
States vary in:
These differences influence modeled impact estimates.
No. $COPE 360 is not a forecasting tool. It reflects current evidence and modeled impact estimates.
Different views may display:
Display labels indicate which measure is shown.
Domain views isolate portions of societal impact rather than displaying the complete framework.
Yes. Many visualizations include export functionality.
Yes. Outputs are intended to support:
Saved views and exported outputs allow users to revisit prior work without rebuilding comparisons.
Yes. Users may generate focused views around:
Yes. $COPE 360 analyses and visualizations can be scientifically cited because they are grounded in peer-reviewed literature, validated datasets, governmental sources, and transparently documented evidence inputs. All estimates are traceable to cited source material, supporting scientific rigor, reproducibility, and evidence-based use in research, policy, advocacy, and education.
You may cite $COPE 360 as a decision-support and research translation platform. We recommend citing both the platform itself and any underlying primary research sources referenced in your analysis, including the associated JAMA study and other cited datasets.
Suggested citation format (APA style):
$COPE 360. (2026). Integrated behavioral health and systems impact modeling platform. [Web-based platform][URL]
Suggested attribution for presentations or reports:
“Analysis generated using $COPE 360, drawing on peer-reviewed and publicly cited data sources, including findings published in JAMA and related health systems research.”
No. The platform presents modeled estimates intended for directional and comparative understanding.
Some impacts remain difficult to quantify including:
No single model captures every dimension of impact.
$COPE 360 reflects currently available evidence and will evolve as additional research and datasets emerge.
No. The platform supports public understanding, planning, policy development, advocacy, and research translation.
It is not intended for diagnosis or treatment decisions.
Visit Contribute to $COPE 360 to:
Yes. $COPE 360 is intended to function as a living evidence and visualization framework that can evolve as additional research, updated datasets, and refined methodologies become available.
See the:
sections within the platform.
Core sources include:
Research demonstrates that schizophrenia-related impacts extend into housing, employment, caregiving, disability systems, homelessness, mortality, and justice-system involvement. A healthcare-only perspective does not fully capture the broader societal impact.
Yes. Metric definitions and supporting descriptions are available through glossary resources, tooltips, and methodology materials.
No. Depending on the visualization, the platform may include modeled estimates, public datasets, demographic indicators, utilization measures, published findings, and derived calculations.
Certain impacts affect multiple systems simultaneously. For example, caregiver burden may intersect with employment, healthcare, productivity, housing, and public systems.
