Editorial: The need for constant awareness, discussion of mental health issues

With today's conclusion of this series of editorials examining issues from the year just past that deserve continued attention in the new one that has just arrived, we come to perhaps one of the most important. Certainly, it is one of the most enduring.

Mental health.

DuPage/Fox Valley News Director Jim Davis reflected accurately in his Sunday column last October that mental illness - like drug addiction, with which it is often associated - "is a story that will never quite end." Davis oversaw a periodic series of reports in 2015 by staff writer Marie Wilson on mental illness.

The stories told of the dangerous role of silence in cases of suicide. They told of panel discussions throughout the suburbs, seminars and even a movie, all intended to keep conversation about mental illness open and frequent. Of special training for police. Of services needed by those who provide care for others. Of the value to all of us of learning "mental health CPR."

We hope and believe these stories played a role in breaking down stigmas about mental illness and providing pathways for society and for each of us as individuals to deal with it more effectively.

The National Institute of Mental Health has estimated that only 40 percent of the estimated 4.5 million Americans who suffer from the severest forms of mental illness get treatment. The National Alliance on Mental Illness says one in four American adults experiences mental illness in a given year, and Wilson's stories pointed out that as many as half of all Americans are directly affected by it.

Even so, far too often, we have trouble talking about mental illness, getting help for our own troubles or directing those we love to find help they need. Wilson's reporting showed that we're making progress, but we still have far to go before we can discuss mental health issues with the same compassionate acknowledgment as we have with, say, diabetes or multiple sclerosis or cancer or even AIDS or Alzheimer's disease.

As we've learned through our reporting on the problems of heroin and drug addiction, which have persisted and in some ways deepened even amid a decade and a half of in-depth reporting, attention alone does not put an end to pernicious behaviors. But without it, without a constant and candid awareness, we cannot undertake the programs, the activities and the personal changes that can effectively combat them.

The story of mental illness, as Davis indicated, is one that likely will never quite end, but if we stay true to it, if all of us commit to examining it openly, honestly and thoroughly in all of its many manifestations, at least we can ensure that the fight against its hardships and its consequences will not end either.