Foreword
Our Nation has come a long way since the time, a century ago, when care of the mentally ill was relegated to prisons, poorhouses, or supervision by families. Yet the problem of mental illness is still pervasive. More than 50 million Americans — 20 percent of the population — are affected by mental disorders within a given year, and 5.5 million have a severely debilitating mental illness. Significantly, 20 percent of children are estimated have mental disorders that cause functional impairment. Furthermore, data developed by the Global Burden of Disease study conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Bank,…
