Mental illness in the United States is an unseen epidemic that has proven costly to individuals, institutions and society in general. Improved recordkeeping and growing compassion for the mentally ill has in recent years helped shed light on the problem, but much progress has still to be made.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness defines mental illness as “medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all American adults will experience some form of mental illness, such as anxiety or depression, in their lifetimes. It is estimated that one in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental illness. Serious forms of mental illness include, but are not limited to, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and panic disorder.
While mental illness can and does strike people of any economic class, it tends to be more of a burden for lower-income people because they do not have the means to find affordable treatment. Approximately one in six adults living just above the poverty line and those who live below it suffer with some serious form of mental illness. These people are in a difficult position because it can be hard for them to hold a job, yet they cannot qualify for disability. In addition, the youth of the nation are more susceptible to mental illness than are the adults. In 90% of suicide cases, mental illness is a factor. Suicide is the No. 3 killer of youth today.
Untreated mental illness obviously has a profound effect on the individuals who suffer with it, but it also places a largely unseen burden on society. NAMI states that the loss of productivity due to untreated mental illness annually is $100 billion and research done by Harvard University Medical School puts that figure at a minimum of $105 billion. Another study showed a loss of 35 million workdays due to the mental illness of employees, and said the problem lies in the fact that 60% of Americans with mental illness are untreated. Costs mount as hospitals get bogged down dealing with physical issues associated with mental illness, schools require additional special education classes, and courts and jails are required to deal with an increasing number of cases that stem from the presence of mental illness.
Fortunately, governments are waking up to the need to help those who are suffering. Most state governments require that insurance companies cover mental illness on equal footing with physical illness. In the states in which this was done, suicide rates fell by 5%. However, as helpful as this is for the insured, it does nothing to help those who are uninsured. The new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will help alleviate this problem because it requires that insurance plans include mental health help and addiction and substance-abuse help as essential health benefits. This will allow as many as 3.7 million Americans to receive new benefits for the treatment of their mental illness.
Despite the new health care law, insurance requirements and other changes, this epidemic continues. Educators and health-care providers must ensure that people are treated for their mental illness and drug companies have to renew their research into new medications for mental illness, something that has lapsed in recent years. Most importantly, society as a whole must abandon the stigma that is associated with mental illness. This includes employers, who must not avoid or ignore the issue of mental illness in the work place, but work to bring it out into the light and come up with ways to help their employees.