Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
June 1, 2000, Thursday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A4
LENGTH: 475 words
HEADLINE:
GORE AND WIFE CITE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN PUSH TO IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH CARE;
MRS. GORE HAS BEEN TREATED FOR DEPRESSION
BYLINE:
From News Services
DATELINE: CHEVY CHASE, MD.
BODY:
Vice President Al Gore vowed
Wednesday to end discrimination against the mentally ill and to provide schools
with new resources to diagnose and treat children with mental disorders.
Gore said that 51 million Americans faced mental disorders each year,
and that five out of six got no treatment mainly because they feared being
stigmatized and even losing their jobs.
Gore spoke at a forum on mental
health care at the Friendship Heights Community Center. Joining him was his
wife, Tipper, who has struggled with depression and has been an advocate for the
mentally ill. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she and her husband talked in
unusually personal terms about the strain of her past depression. She said the
vice president "was personally supportive of me at a time when I needed it."
Gore said, "Everything I'm going to tell you this morning I learned from
Tipper."
If elected president, Gore promised a "new era" for
mental health, starting with insurance
coverage for children. He proposed that insurance companies be
required to cover mental health services for children under the
same co-payments and deductibles used for other health benefits.
He also
called for special mental health training for all new teachers, promised to
fight for strong patient rights to privacy, and proposed expanding current
outreach and treatment services. The program would cost $ 2.5 billion over 10
years.
"I want to win with a mandate to start a completely new era that
gives hope ... to everyone and to every family touched by mental illness," Gore
said.
"Step by step, together, we will break this cycle of silence, poor
information and stigma. We will replace it with more understanding, more
tolerance and a truly healthier future."
Gore and his wife usually
campaign separately to cover more territory. They made their rare joint
appearance in the middle of a week when Gore's campaign is trying to spotlight
his personal side.
Tipper Gore underwent treatment - including
medication and family counseling - for clinical depression after her son, Albert
III, then 6, was hit by a car in 1989 and nearly died.
She revealed her
own troubles in a newspaper interview last year to help, she said, remove the
stigma attached to mental illness and encourage others to seek help. In the
months since, she has spoken extensively about mental health but has refused to
answer some questions, including whether she is still on medication.
"When mental illness goes untreated and undiagnosed and unmentioned,"
Gore said as his wife nodded, "the strain on a family can become unbearably
painful."
Mrs. Gore took command at a later discussion with the
audience.
One woman in the audience warmly saluted Mrs. Gore as her role
model. And Gore? "You're an angel," the woman told him.
"I get
that all the time," Gore joked.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO Color
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Tipper Gore and Al Gore take part in a forum
Wednesday at the Friendship Heights Community Center in Chevy Chase, Md.
LOAD-DATE: June 1, 2000 
