Unmasking Mental Illness
Recently, I was honored to serve as a Co-Chair of the 2006 Gala Celebration of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). The theme of the evening was “Unmasking Mental Illness.” It was a theme that reflects the belief that the dissemination of the truth about mental illness will lead to a greater public understanding of the problems that people with mental illness and their families face, and what we can do to help them. A greater public knowledge of these issues would help to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness, making it easier for people to seek the treatment they need. While a great deal of progress has been made to “unmask” mental illness and improve treatment for Americans with mental illness, much still needs to be done.
One of the most daunting public health challenges facing our nation is how to increase access to quality mental health services for the more than 44-million Americans with severe, disabling mental disorders that can devastate their lives and the lives of the people around them.
Studies have shown that more than one in five Americans aged 65 or older – including more than 32,000 Mainers – experience mental illness, and that the majority of elderly persons in nursing homes suffer from some kind of mental impairment. Particularly disturbing is the fact that the mental health needs of older Americans are often overlooked or not recognized because of the mistaken belief that the problems are a normal part of aging and therefore cannot be treated.
Fortunately, important research is being done that is helping to develop innovative approaches to improve the delivery of mental health care for older adults by integrating it into primary care settings. This research demonstrates that older adults are more likely to receive appropriate mental health care if there is a mental health professional on the primary care team, rather than referring them to a separate mental health specialist. Multiple appointments with multiple providers in multiple settings simply don’t work for many older patients who must also cope with chronic illnesses, mobility problems, and limited transportation options.
To build upon this important research and to ensure that older Americans have access to the quality mental health care they deserve, I worked with Senator Hillary Clinton to author the Positive Aging Act, which will soon be signed into law as part of the Older Americans Act. This legislation will provide a range of projects that integrate mental health centers, senior centers, and assisted living facilities. Moreover, the bill provides more opportunity for teams of mental health professionals to work hand-in-hand with other providers of health and social services.
Serious mental illness also afflicts millions of our nation’s children and adolescents. It is estimated that as many as 20-percent of American children under the age of seventeen suffer from a mental, emotional, or behavioral illness. Of these, nearly half have a condition that produces a serious disability that impairs the child’s ability to function in day-to-day activities. What is even more disturbing is the fact that two-thirds of all young people who need mental health treatment are not getting it.
Behind each of these statistics is a family that is struggling to do the best it can to help a son or daughter with a serious mental illness to be just like every other kid – to develop friendships, to do well in school, and to get along with their siblings and other family members. These children are often involved with more than one social service agency, including the mental health, special education, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems. Yet, no one agency, at either the state or the federal level, is clearly responsible or accountable for helping these children.
As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I held a series of hearings to examine the current barriers that prevent families from accessing the mental health services that their children need without having to place them in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. Based on the findings of those hearings, I introduced the Keeping Families Together Act to help improve access to mental health services and assist states in eliminating the practice of parents relinquishing custody of their children solely for the purpose of securing treatment. No parent should have to give up custody of his or her child just to get the services that the child needs.
The legislation authorizes $55 million over six years for grants to states to create an infrastructure to support and sustain statewide systems of care to serve children who are in custody or at risk of entering custody of the state for the purpose of receiving mental health services. These grants are intended to help states serve children more effectively and efficiently, while keeping them at home with their families. The legislation also establishes a federal interagency task force to examine mental health issues in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and the role of their agencies in promoting access by children and youth to mental health services.
According to the Bazelon Center, one of the most crucial barriers that parents of children with serious mental health disorders face is the availability of mental health providers and services. To address this problem, I am also sponsoring a bipartisan bill that includes incentives to help recruit and retain child mental health professionals who provide direct clinical care. The Child Healthcare Crisis Relief Act would also improve, expand, or help create programs to train child mental health professionals.
Also important for Americans of all ages who are living with mental health problems is mental health parity legislation that I have cosponsored to require insurers to cover mental illness in the same way that they cover a physical illness. This would eliminate the limitations in some private insurance policies that currently pose another major barrier for people with serious mental health disorders to get the care they need.
My hope is that through events like the NAMI celebration, we can help to “unmask” the very personal stories behind the statistics and stigma of mental illness and remind everyone that these are very real people who can and deserve to be helped. By heightening public awareness of the difficult problems confronting children and older adults with mental problems and their families, we will advance legislative and administrative reforms at both the federal and state level to reduce the barriers to care for Americans who suffer from mental illness.
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