Systems Transformation

Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance is taking tangible steps to ensure people living with schizophrenia consistently receive the life-sustaining treatment they need to live meaningful, fulfilling lives.

Although evidence-based medical approaches for treating schizophrenia exist today, there are substantial issues with implementing them. As a result, millions of people are left untreated, marginalized, and dehumanized by inadequate medical care and treatment.

We call on the medical community, law enforcement, employers, and the general public to help us catalyze a movement to reduce barriers to effective treatment. This is only possible with bold systems-level change initiatives.

Our approach

We take a three-pronged approached to systems-level change:

Recharacterize public perception of people with schizophrenia from fear and fatalism to hope and recovery.

Restructure disease-classification codes to reduce stigma, highlight the physical nature of the illness, amplify the link between anosognosia and poor outcomes, and frame schizophrenia as a spectrum disease.

Revitalize specific, proven initiatives to address barriers to treatment and recovery within the medical, criminal justice, and employment systems.