Schizophrenia Incidence

• 7 to 22 per 100,000 new cases every year

• 2 women are affected per every 3 men

Schizophrenia Prevalence

• Globally, 3.33 per 1000

• As of 2016, 20.9 million cases globally

Mortality

• Average 14.5 years of potential life lost

• Obesity, cigarette smoking, sedentary lifestyle contribute to medical issues

(Jones and Beauvais, 2022)

The U.S. government backs grants and Medicare to cover early total psychosis treatment to prevent people from becoming more government-dependent in the long-term. Commercial insurance companies (i.e. Blue Shield, Anthem) are not compelled to cover total early psychosis treatment because reducing government dependence does not concern them, and so they do not. Thus, a reverse disparity is created as people in the middle class have less access to comprehensive early psychosis treatment than the lower and poverty classes.

(Dembosky, 2024)

The American Counseling Association's Advocacy Action Toolkit (AAT) helps members become legislatively involved in supporting causes that require advocacy for change. The AAT provides a template to compose letters to legislators and provides tips for when meeting legislators in-person. It offers links to read and track legislation and provides pertinent information related to many counseling issues that require legislative action and advocacy. The NPR podcast article makes it clear that there is a legislative need to enforce parity between behavioral health coverage and medical coverage in commercial insurance companies. It appears that commercial insurance companies lack parity when it comes to behavioral health coverage of total early psychosis treatment. 

Advocacy Action Toolkit (click me)