MENTAL ILLNESS -- BEYOND THE STIGMA

By Congressman Ciro D. Rodriguez

WASHINGTON, DC: We hear a lot about the need for good nutrition to maintain our health. Lower fat and lower cholesterol diets, more fresh fruits and vegetables, and less sweets -- we are constantly reminded that these will help us avoid disease. Keeping our bodies healthy is certainly important and, if you are like me, we probably need to work harder at it.

But with all the focus on health, we hear far too little about mental health. Like other diseases, mental health disease can impair our ability to work, enjoy time with friends and families, and be productive members of society. Persons suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental traumas face serious challenges that are no less significant and no less worthy of treatment than, for example, heart disease or diabetes.

In 1997, it is estimated that nearly 3 million Texans, or one in six people, had some form of mental illness. More than 640,000 children have an emotional disturbance, 200,000 of them serious. Yet Texas spends less than 60 percent of the national average on mental health services, ranking it 42^nd among the states in per resident expenditures.

According to the National Center for Mental Health Services, more than 40 million adult Americans experience mental disorders during their lives. Only 1 in 4 of them receives treatment. Nearly 8 million children and adolescents, about 12% of all children, experience serious emotional disturbances, but only about one-third receive mental health services. In other words 75% of adults and 67% of children with some kind of mental health problem don't get treatment. Could you imagine if 75% of Americans with any other disease did not get any treatment? We would be up in arms, and we should be about mental health disease as well.

The problem is in large part cultural. For too long, the entire subject of mental health has been taboo. People with disease are the subject of jokes and ridicule, often dismissed as "crazy." The stigma limits our ability to discuss the problem and deal with it responsibly. People who suffer from mental health problems similarly shy away from talking about their disease or seeking help.

We need to reverse this stigma and treat mental health disease like we do other diseases: as something that should be studied, discussed, treated and cured. Teen depression and suicide can be just as deadly as cancer, and like cancer it can often be cured if caught and treated early.

This past week I participated in the first ever White House Conference on Mental Health, chaired by Tipper Gore. The conference was designed to focus attention on mental health concerns and treatment and to reduce the stigma attached to mental health illnesses. Both Ms. Gore and guest Mike Wallace confessed their battles with depression in an emotion-filled room.

As part of the conference, the President announced that all health care providers serving federal employees must improve mental health coverage if they are to stay in the program. The President stated that the goal was "parity," providing equivalent coverage for mental health and substance abuse care. That is a worthy and reachable goal for all health care providers.

Let's forget the old stereotypes and prejudices and remember that mental illness is a disease that we can treat and often cure. We owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to our children.