Treatment Advocacy Center was founded in 1998 by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey. After working for 15 years at a Washington, D.C. clinic serving unhoused people with severe mental illness, Dr. Torrey authored the book “Out of the Shadows: Confronting America’s Mental Illness Crisis,” detailing failed policies that have led to suffering, lost chances for recovery, and the widespread criminalization of mental illness in the U.S.
Dr. Torrey was contacted by Vada Stanley, who expressed an interest in funding efforts to help this vulnerable population. After consulting with other experts in policy and legal fields, Dr. Torrey concluded that treatment alone could not correct this disastrous course. Advocacy to reform state laws was necessary to make it possible to treat people before illness caused them to fall into homelessness or incarceration, or to become dangerous to themselves or to others. With the generous support of the Stanley Family Foundation, Treatment Advocacy Center was founded to meet this challenge.
Since 1998, Treatment Advocacy Center has led a nationwide movement to eliminate barriers to the treatment of severe mental illness. Have a look at the historical loop below, showcasing 25 years of impact and what we have managed to accomplish.
Our mission is to prevent the suffering and harm caused by failing to treat severe mental illness (SMI) and to give all people whose lives are affected by it the chance to thrive.
Since our beginning, the goal of TAC has been to eliminate barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness, whatever and wherever they might be. Barriers come in a multitude of forms. Many states have passed laws making it difficult to access treatment at a time when it is likely to be of maximum benefit or making it so difficult to meet criteria that people with mental illness are routinely driven into the criminal legal system. This is a tragedy, and one that can and must be corrected. Funding decisions that lead to the loss of already-scarce treatment beds compound these issues, as does our failure to invest in research to find better medications and treatment with the ability to help those diagnosed with severe mental illness now, within this lifetime.
What Inspired TAC
Listen to our founder, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, discuss his motivation for founding Treatment Advocacy Center in 1998, and TAC’s role in achieving reform of the failed systems of treatment for people with SMI.
Our Values
We are fighting for the lives of people with severe mental illness in a system stacked against them. We approach our work with a sense of urgency because for many it’s a matter of life and death. In all things we do, we strive to honor our founding values.
- Treatment Advocacy Center is a wholly independent and non-partisan organization. We accept NO money from the pharmaceutical industry or other interest groups that could tarnish our reputation for independence in research, policy work, or advocacy.
- Our work is entirely for the benefit of the often overlooked and marginalized people affected by severe mental illness – our SMI community. We are committed to ending the suffering that comes from failure to provide treatment and to rebuilding the system of care to make it what it should be.
- We are galvanized by compassion for the suffering of those with severe mental illness who have been failed by our system and society.
- We believe in boldness. We are not and never have been afraid to speak truth to power in pursuit of achieving our mission.
- Integrity is the foundational value of every aspect of our work. We pursue policies supported by evidence that will improve the lives of people affected by SMI regardless of which answers are easiest or most popular.
Our Support of Families
A diagnosis of SMI impacts the life of that person and all those who love them.
Founded by family members and people with lived experience, we believe that decisions at the local, state, and federal level must include the perspectives of both.