People with untreated severe mental illnesses may pose a greater risk to the future of America’s public libraries than does the invention of the Internet, according to a new survey released in the March/April edition of Public Libraries, the journal of the American Library Association. 

Award-winning actor and activist Martin Sheen is working to raise awareness of the need to change state laws to improve treatment for severe mental illnesses.    Sheen joined Father Jim Kinney of the Peace of Mind Project during an interview on Philadelphia’s ABC Action News show Puerto Rican Panorama.  They discuss the challenges and struggles facing those living with untreated severe mental illness and the despair facing their loving families.   Watch the video and learn more about other topics by clicking read more below.

During any given week, the headlines are striking.  "Family: Homicide victim suffered schizophrenia."  "Boone man shot in clash with police at bar dies."  "Missing Canton women is found alive; survives in silo."

In the fall of 1998, most of the country had not heard the names Kendra Webdale or Laura Wilcox.   Students at Virginia Tech were known mainly as vocal fans of their successful football team.   This would change.  Preventable tragedies involving these people eventually became a focal point for reforming state treatment laws.

Report finds US deficit of nearly 100,000 inpatient beds; result is increased homelessness, emergency room overcrowding, and use of jails and prisons as de-facto psychiatric hospitals

A March 2008 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center reveals that for every 20 public psychiatric beds that existed in the US in 1955, only one such bed existed in 2005.