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Advocates lobby for more mental health Medicaid access in Missouri

KOMU News
/
Flickr

Advocates are lobbying in Jefferson City for Missouri Medicaid to expand access for young adults suffering with mental illness.

The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/1Tzw61A) reports that members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness are working to establish a waiver that would allow 21- to 35-year-olds to get health care at the first signs of serious mental illness.

The alliance's executive director, Cindi Keele, says the project was inspired by recent studies that show how effective treatment can be if it begins soon after a person's first psychotic episode.

Keele said people's first episodes often land them in the emergency room, but that once they're stabilized, they have poor chances of receiving effective care.

The campaign is sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health's Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode program.