Mental Health in the 21st CenturyGovernment policies on mental health care have not materialized or helped people with mental illness as intended . Insurance companies continue to deprive the mentally ill of affordable treatment; psychiatric hospitals persist in not releasing their patients for years, thereby depriving others of medical care; sick and unable to hold steady employment, homelessness becomes the only option for many; irrational decisions become rational and crime becomes viable. With a rebuild of the mental health system, stricter rules on parity insurance, and a reduction in stigma, crime would decline, homelessness would dissipate, and more Americans would lead normal, healthy lives. The brain is the most unexplored organ in the human body. It is therefore not surprising that many psychological illnesses have been misdiagnosed. Dementia is a biological disease, not a mental illness, and currently up to 5.3 million citizens suffer from Alzheimer's disease (Hébert). This creates a growing demand for treatment in a mental health facility, for problems that are not even related to mental health. There are a large number of false placements because disorders like dementia, ADHD and many others are not mental, but biological. The United States has a fragmented system that makes practical treatment almost inaccessible to sick people in need. People of all ages suffer from mental illnesses, but due to misconceptions about what mental illness is, social and legal pressures prevent victims from seeking help. Mental illness is not the "result of weak will or misguided parenting" as was once thought, but it has been discovered that "most 'mental' illnesses are biological in origin, as are physical illnesses” (Carter). Because... middle of paper ......g for medical training programs, reorganized regulated health care facilities, and severe government involvement in insurance. Mental health care programs deserve proper classification and budgeting procedures, which would ultimately reduce government and social spending in costly areas such as criminal institutions and homeless shelters dominated by the mentally ill. Rebuilding and refinancing the mental health care system would transform the socioeconomic status of millions of Americans, but especially justice for those who have been beaten, caged, burned, persecuted, shunned, and stereotyped because of of their mental illness. Reform could reduce suicides, reduce mass killings, reduce crime rates, reduce homelessness, and advance a more productive American society. It's time to demand change for the millions of people today suffering from untreated mental illnesses..