Mental Health Urgency
Journal News Editorial July 29, 2003
There was a call to revolution last week: Americans not only must change the
way mental illness is treated, they must change their very understanding of
it. The astronomical monetary costs, let alone tragic human costs, associated
with it demand nothing less.
In an interim report, the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health,
created early last year, found the nation's mental-health system to be "in
shambles." Millions of adults and children with mental illnesses were, and are
not, receiving the care they need.
In its final 100-plus-page report released Tuesday - "Achieving the Promise:
Transforming Mental Health Care in America" - the 22-member panel stated
emphatically that the nation's mental-health system must be reconstructed,
from the ground up, into a comprehensive one.
An estimated 5 percent to 7 percent of adults have serious mental illnesses in
any year, and up to 9 percent of children have serious emotional problems, the
report noted - about 15 million Americans total.
Each year, more deaths are attributed to suicide than to homicide or war. Yet
the stigma associated with mental illness keeps it largely hidden.
"Mental illnesses are shockingly common; they affect almost every American
family," commission Chair Mike Hogan wrote President Bush in a cover letter to
the panel's report.
The panel issued a set of goals requiring a fundamental shift in expectations:
to not only get patients the medication and therapy they need, but to
formulate plans for integrating them fully into community life, including job,
housing and social opportunities.
The report insists "that people with mental illness can recover and should be
given that opportunity," said Bill Emmet, coordinator of the Campaign for
Mental Health Reform, a coalition of 16 advocacy groups. "Even five years ago
that was unthinkable."
While the report disappointingly does not call on Washington to provide new
funding, it persuasively argues that reducing fragmentation and regulatory
obstacles, and increasing accountability, efficiency and effectiveness, could
free up money lost or needlessly spent in the current system.
Altogether, mental-health spending is astounding. The annual bill for
treatment totals more than $71 billion, according to the National Institutes
of Mental Health.
Untreated mental illness, including criminal justice and social welfare, costs
the nation about $300 billion a year. At least $20 billion is spent each year
on Social Security disability payments to people who, studies found, would
rather work.
As Hogan told The Dallas Morning News: "Most of the cost of mental illness is
not the cost of providing care, but the cost of not providing care, or
providing bad care."
That would change with another vital shift: Government requirements that
private insurance companies provide equitable coverage for mental-health
services.
That's called parity, and it is an essential component to reform.
Source:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/print_newsroom/072903/29edmhreport.html
This 'Mental Health E-News' posting is a service of the New York Ass'n of
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, a statewide coalition of people who use
and/or provide community mental health services dedicated to improving
services and social conditions for people with psychiatric disabilities by
promoting their recovery, rehabilitation and rights. To join our list, e-mail
us your request and, where appropriate, the name of your organization to
NYAPRSheather@aol.com.
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