By Margo Kulseth, MLIS, Information Specialist
May is National
Mental Health Awareness Month. But what does awareness
mean? Who lacks awareness, and how can we rectify it?
Our society
in general lacks awareness about the facts
of mental illness. One in four of us will experience mental illness in a given
year. If you think you aren’t affected, consider that mental illness costs our
country hundreds of billions of dollars each year for things like medical care
for the uninsured, disability payments, and lost productivity.
The media
lacks awareness and often contributes to the stigma surrounding mental illness
and its siblings, substance abuse and suicide. How could we be fully aware
about mental illness when we hear about it only in the wake of tragedies like
school shootings and other acts of violence? This type of sensationalism in
reporting is misleading. In fact, the majority of people with mental illness
are not violent.
Many individuals
suffer in silence due to lack of understanding or shame about admitting to a
problem. Mental illness is not to be blamed on the patient any more than other
medical conditions. Yet it is the stigma that prevents many from seeking help
and receiving treatment. This problem is magnified in rural areas where
neighbors know each other well and don’t want themselves or their vehicles to
be seen at “that” clinic (if mental health services even exist in their area).
The alternative is to drive great distances for treatment.
Our health care
workforce lacks awareness about how to treat mental illness. Because of the
lack of mental health services and providers, especially in rural areas, many
people, if they get treatment at all, receive care from their family physician
who is usually not optimally trained in this type of specialty care. It is
often difficult to recruit and retain clinicians in rural areas, and mental health
specialists are no exception. One solution is to use telemental health,
which is long-distance counseling and treatment via teleconferencing or video
conferencing. In a crisis, individuals may seek help in the emergency room,
where, if the need is recognized and properly diagnosed, patients are still
unable to be admitted or transported by ambulance to the nearest psychiatric
facility, which may be full or simply too far away.
Police
officers, who are often the first responders in a mental health
emergency, especially in rural areas, lack awareness about how to recognize and
handle people with mental illness. Again, the media tells tragic stories of
police using force against someone who appeared dangerous, only to learn later
that person was experiencing psychosis and unable to think clearly or act
appropriately. One way this is being addressed is through crisis intervention team
(CIT) training, which provides techniques and skills for
dealing with this type of situation.
Staff at correctional
institutions lack awareness about mental illness. Estimates are that 44% to 64%
of inmates at jails and prisons in the US are mentally ill, and many are not
getting treatment, prompting some to refer to our correctional institutions as
warehouses for the mentally ill. Even those who enter the system while
receiving treatment may be denied ongoing care while incarcerated.
Our legislators
lack awareness. Some states have cut back on funding for mental health care. Creigh
Deeds is a Virginia State Senator who was stabbed in the
face by his son with mental illness just before his son took his own life after
seeking treatment and being turned away due to lack of available inpatient
services. Senator Deeds’ face bears the scars of the attack. His personal
experience and the resulting disfigurement, combined with his position of
political power, provide some hope that his ideas about how to address the
mental health care crisis in his state and in America will be given serious
attention and result in positive action by our lawmakers.
There is good news! Our country as a whole is gaining
awareness about mental illness. The Affordable Care Act will give millions of Americans access to affordable
health care, which includes mental health and substance abuse coverage. There
are a number of other major
initiatives in progress designed to strengthen the
mental health of all Americans, including some targeted to specific at-risk
populations such as military service members, Veterans, children and rural
residents.
So what else can we do? We must keep advocating for
those who are not receiving proper mental health services for one reason or
another. We must educate the public, service providers, and lawmakers and
create a better plan for addressing the current crisis in our country. And we
must integrate primary care, mental health, and all other medical services by working
together, collaborating and embracing telemental health opportunities for the
good of the patient.
Advocate.
Educate.
Create.
Integrate.
Collaborate.
To raise your awareness of mental illness, please visit
the following websites as well as those linked in the text above for more
information:
Mental
Health America (MHA), formerly known as National Mental Health
Association
MentalHealth.gov
from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the US Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS)
