State mental health system costs lives

Illinois' broken mental health system is costing lives, not only the lives of those with mental illness, but their families and bystanders as well.

Recently, a Cook county judge sentenced a mentally ill woman, Mary Smith, to life in a state mental health facility. Last year, the woman, who had been in and out of mental hospitals six times in recent years, set a fire in the stairwell of a Chicago apartment. Four of the building's residents died in the resulting blaze.

The reason? She was homeless, had lost her shoes and was cold.

With consistent treatment and support, the vast majority of people with mental illness see their symptoms improve and are able to lead normal productive lives.

But Illinois' revolving-door mental health system too often provides little treatment and less support. Instead people with mental illnesses are hospitalized for a few days, stabilized and then released with little or no follow up support.

So in a short time, their symptoms return, their behavior deteriorates and the whole process starts over.

Illinois has one of the worst mental health systems in the country.

A recent national study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness gave Illinois' mental health system an F, one of only eight states to receive that low a grade.

And some area state legislators will tell you that we are not just one of the eight worst, we are the absolute worst.

And the reason? The state legislature won't appropriate sufficient funds to provide even a halfway decent mental health system.

Had Mary Smith been given long-term supportive treatment, including a decent place to live, this tragedy would not have happened. The expression "penny wise and pound foolish" certainly describes the Illinois General Assembly.

And four people are dead as a result.

Hugh Brady

President

NAMI/Barrington Area

National Alliance on Mental Illness

Palatine