Illinois needs to fix mental health system

The Daily Herald recently carried a story of another tragic failure of Illinois' mental health system. ("Unfit or unjust?" by Barbara Vitello) A young man is dead, murdered by a man who showed all the signs of serious and untreated mental illness. But the story fails to mention the real culprit in this tragedy.

This killing could have been prevented. Mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders and they are treatable illnesses. Most people with mental illness will recover and lead normal productive lives if they receive adequate treatment.

But adequate treatment is very difficult to obtain in Illinois. People with untreated mental illness oftentimes have no access to employer-based health insurance, and they cannot buy individual policies because they are screened out for having a mental illness or for having a "pre-existing condition". So they are forced to rely on Illinois' crumbling public mental health system.

In 2006 the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) released a state-by-state comparison of mental health systems. Illinois was one of only eight states to receive a grade of "F". Mental health professionals will tell you that the grade was richly deserved. And now, thanks to Governor Blagojevich's 20% cut in funding for community mental health centers and other mental health programs, the situation is even worse. NAMI is now working on another "Grading the States" report, to be released next spring. The advance speculation is that Illinois will receive an F minus if such a grade is possible.

How many more people must die before the General Assembly does what it should have done years ago, namely create a mental health system that actually provides treatment, that actually helps its clients recover from these devastating illnesses, that actually protects its residents from those whose illnesses lead them into delusions and violence?

Hugh Brady

President

NAMI/Barrington Area