Report card gives Missouri C, Illinois D for mental health care systems

By Jasmine Huda

KSDK -- Missouri and Illinois need to do a better job caring for people with mental illness, according to national report released today.

The National Alliance for Mental Illness gives Missouri a "C" - the same grade from three years ago, when NAMI last issued a report card. Illinois moved from a failing grade to a "D."

Mental health care advocates in Illinois say they are not surprised by the findings.

"The resources that we have are just stretched - resources to help with medication, housing and case management, they're just stretched so thinly," Marcia Wickenhauser, Executive Director of the Association of Community Mental Health Authorities, said.

Access to care is becoming a larger problem in Missouri, NAMI said. Francie Broderick is the Executive Director of Places for People, a St. Louis agency that helps people who are mentally ill live healthy, productive lives.

"Right now the most common way for people to get services they need is to get very, very, sick and go into the hospital. That's not the best way. That's the most costly, and the least effective way," she said.

Broderick and other advocates are worried about what budget cuts would mean for those who depend on them.

The national average was a "D." To read the NAMI report, click here. The report includes highlights of improvements states have made in the past few years.