People with serious mental illness (SMI) have long been “otherized” in American society. This isolation extends from the disgraced legacy of neglectful, abusive psychiatric institutions, which at their height in 1955 confined more than half a million people with mental illness, to today’s jails and prisons, where nearly half the incarcerated population has a mental illness. Yet for those who are not in these settings, people with SMI are at extreme risk for loneliness and isolation. Public stigma of mental illness — which is pervasive even among health care providers — perpetuates negative stereotypes of people with mental illness and prevents seeing the person behind the diagnosis. It results in many forms of discrimination, including housing and employment, and can be a barrier to treatment engagement. The social consequences of SMI may also contribute to reduced life expectancy, and elevated suicide rates for these individuals compared to the general population.