A recent study con­duct­ed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has revealed that Texas is almost last among states in spend­ing on men­tal health ser­vices and per­forms poor­ly in oth­er men­tal health areas. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas ranked 47th in the nation in per-capi­ta spend­ing on men­tal health ser­vices, and received a grade of ​“D” for infor­ma­tion access and a grade of ​“C” overall. 

Robin Peyson, NAMI-Texas exec­u­tive direc­tor, observed that one of the main obsta­cles faced by the men­tal­ly ill is a false per­cep­tion that they are more like­ly to be vio­lent. She notes that vio­lence is not the norm for those with men­tal ill­ness and, in fact, the arti­cle notes that the men­tal­ly ill are more like­ly to be vic­tims of vio­lence than to become vio­lent them­selves. When those with men­tal ill­ness do com­mit vio­lent acts, Peyson said that it is usu­al­ly because they have not received the nec­es­sary treat­ment or have become addict­ed to drugs or alco­hol. According to NAMI, there are more than 50 mil­lion adults in the U.S. who suf­fer from some form of men­tal ill­ness, most of which are treatable. 

(Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 15, 2007). See Mental Illness.

Texas leads the coun­try in exe­cu­tions and has exe­cut­ed many inmates with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness includ­ing Larry Robison, James Colburn, Betty Lou Beets, and Kelsey Patterson. Texas sought the death penal­ty against Andrea Yates, who was found not guilty by rea­son of insan­i­ty at her sec­ond tri­al. Texas is cur­rent­ly seek­ing to exe­cute Scott Panetti, who was hos­pi­tal­ized over a dozen times for men­tal ill­ness pri­or to his crime, and who defend­ed him­self in a cow­boy suit. His case is pend­ing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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