Copyright 2000 Star Tribune
Star Tribune
(Minneapolis, MN)
February 9, 2000, Wednesday, Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 11A
LENGTH: 677 words
HEADLINE:
Stigma surrounding suicide adds to problem, panel is told;
There is 'much
work to be done' before this mental health problem can be solved, panel is told.
BYLINE: Tom Hamburger; Staff Writer
DATELINE: Washington, D.C.
BODY:
Suicide is a public health crisis, a U.S.
Senate panel was told Tuesday, and attitudes such as those expressed by
Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura are inhibiting progress toward a solution.
Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., speaking to a
packed Appropriations subcommittee hearing, said Ventura's comments on suicide
in an interview last fall revealed an "insensitivity and a lack of knowledge
that shows we have a lot of work to do."
Others
attending the hearing called on Ventura to "get educated."
They also urged him to help solve a problem that has
become the third-leading cause of death among Americans aged 15 to 24.
In the Playboy interview, Ventura was asked
whether he had ever read books by Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide.
Ventura said, "I have no respect for anyone who would kill themselves. . . . If
you are a feeble, weak-minded person to begin with, I don't have time for you."
Eight witnesses told the Senate subcommittee on
labor and health about the need to respond to suicide, the eighth-leading cause
of death in the United States.
Chief among the
problems that need to be addressed, panelists said, is ending misunderstanding
about mental illness so that those with suicidal symptoms can get treatment.
"Because of the stigma too long associated with
mental illness and suicide, we, as a nation, have been reluctant to talk about
this threat to our health and well being," Surgeon General David Satcher told
the subcommittee. He said suicides greatly outnumber
homicides, and that "we now understand that many suicides and
intentional, self-inflicted injuries are indeed preventable."
At the hearing, volunteers from the National
Alliance for the Mentally Ill distributed fliers headlined: "Neither feeble nor
weak-minded: Consumers respond to Jesse Ventura."
The flier included an open letter to Ventura
written in October urging him to join the alliance and "learn what we have
learned firsthand: That mental illness is not a weakness of character, but a
biologically based illness that is treatable; that mental illness is not covered
on most health plans, or if it is, is covered only for a fraction of the
legitimate cost of treatment; and that mental illness still carries a stigma and
shame which prevents so many who would otherwise find treatment to ever get it."
Ventura's spokesman, John Wodele, said Tuesday
that the governor had responded individually and privately to Minnesotans
concerned about his positions, but that he had not had time to respond to those
from out of state who wrote to him about his remarks in Playboy.
"The governor hasn't responded in a public way
because he prefers his education on issues to take place in an environment of
learning and not publicity," Wodele said. "He is aware of the concern his
comments on suicide caused . . . and certainly he did not mean to hurt anyone."
After the hearing, Steven Hyman, director of the
National Institute of Mental Health, said Ventura's comments were similar to
those of many Americans who have not been exposed to mental illness in their
immediate families.
"He is not aware that mental
illness is not a voluntarily condition, but is a real disease of an organ, the
brain. It is not unlike coronary artery disease or diabetes. But it is not
understood in the same way.
"I feel that civic
leaders like the governor are in a position to help us deal with the stigma and
the lack of access" to care, Hyman said.
Wodele
said Ventura has been willing to discuss his views privately but that his
administration has begun a modest suicide prevention program at the state level.
In Washington, the surgeon general has launched
a "Call to Action" to address the burgeoning problem of suicide. Congressional
members have promised to send more money to the National Institute of
Mental Health and to consider legislation sponsored by
Wellstone and others that would put mental health coverage at
parity with insurance for other ailments.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
LOAD-DATE: February 9, 2000 
