Policy Experts Call for Broad New Agenda for Mental Health Care: Research, Relationships, and Resources Needed to Bridge Costly Gaps
“With more than one in four of Americans dealing with some form of mental illness in the course of a year, and given our shift from a system dominated by mental hospitals to a network of community-based care, public institutions like schools, hospitals and prisons are becoming primary providers of mental health services,” said Jonathan F. Fanton, President, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “As long as the mental health role of these institutions remains unacknowledged and unsupported, many people with mental illness will go without effective treatment – at great cost to them, their families, and their communities.”
Despite the fact that 30 percent of SSI and SSDI recipients, 18 percent of the persons in prison, 25 percent of juvenile offenders, 25 percent of the homeless, and 10 percent of youth in schools have serious mental health conditions, public agencies in these sectors are not designed, prepared, or equipped to deal with their mental health treatment and service needs.
Public schools, universities, prisons, health care and housing providers, employers and other institutions have increasingly been called to provide front line mental health care. While dealing daily with the needs of individuals with mental illness, they have done so without the tools or evidence base they need to most effectively address complex mental health issues.
“We need to move the conversation about mental health squarely into the mainstream where we discuss housing, education, primary medical care, veteran’s affairs, and other national priorities,” said Howard Goldman, Director, MacArthur Mental Health Policy Research Network. “When we consider mental health and its effects on everyday life, we not only improve conditions for those with mental illness, but we build stronger and more effective public policies and social institutions for everyone.”
A collection of issue briefs released today by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mental Health Policy Research highlight critical priorities for creating the research, resources, and relationships to effectively address mental health issues in public policy.
The prominence of mental health in daily life is increasing. As large numbers of soldiers return from combat with post-traumatic stress disorders, their local communities will also grapple with the effects. After each incidence of campus violence, the pressure for schools and universities to understand and respond to mental illnesses increases. Even the presidential debate over universal health care plays a role in determining how large a priority mental health will become for any new health insurance plan.
Since the treatment of mental illness began to shift from hospitals into community settings beginning in the 1950’s, people dealing with mental health conditions became regular users of a wide range of community institutions and services. When their needs are not well addressed, as in the case of homeless mentally ill people, the results can be tragic. Nearly 30% of homeless individuals suffer from severe and persistent mental illness.
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