Take time to learn about mental illness

October 2-8 is Mental Illness Awareness Week, a U.S. Congress established opportunity to learn about serious mental illnesses such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It is especially important this year as severe budget cuts threaten mental health services across the country. When that happens, people who do not receive treatment end up in hospitals, shelters, or jail. Due to the ongoing “revolving door” nature of this, these people are “treated” in more costly modes than the services which have been cut. The cost to the community is high and the taxpayer foots the bill.

In Lake County, a $1.3 million shortfall in federal and state funding has resulted in several programs and 25 staff positions being eliminated at Lake County Health Department, predominately in behavioral health services. In Springfield, the FY2012 state budget cut $670 million (17 percent) from the Department of Human Services, which provides services and funding for community health services like LCHD. This is on top of $300 million cut in FY2009 through FY2011. The governor has proposed. closing five mental health facilities, including three state mental hospitals, and transferring the patients to community health systems like LCHD.

These cuts were disproportionate to those of other budget areas, thus putting the burden of fixing budget problems on the backs of its most helpless citizens.

Mental illness is a medical illness, not a matter of “will.” One in four adults experiences a mental disorder in any given year. One in 17 adults lives with serious mental illness, which affects rich and poor alike — it does not discriminate.

Gain an understanding of how mental illness affects us all and encourage your representatives in government to budget the pain equitably.

Tom Joyce

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Lake County

Libertyville