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| Adam Lanza, Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooter |
Today’s guest post is by Audrey Willis.
It's a sad fact that mental
health care in the United States is becoming increasingly unattainable.
From 2009 to 2012 the mental
health care industry saw a $5 billion drop in funds across the country,
primarily stemming from national budget cuts. While one in four adults---nearly
62 million individuals--experiences some type of mental illness in a given
year, a staggering 4,500 public psychiatric hospital beds
were eliminated during the same period. New York, Kentucky, California, and
Illinois were among the top cutting states. Additionally, 13 states closed at
least 25 percent of their state hospital beds. Unsurprisingly, this has
resulted in a steep increase in patients visiting emergency rooms across the
country in search of mental health care assistance. States that closed the
highest number of mental health care beds also experienced an increase in
violent crime over the same time period.
Aside from these budget cuts,
there is another concerning issue, as the global mental health care industry is
experiencing a shortage in working professionals. Globally, nearly one in ten
people has a mental health issue. Who will take care of these people if only
one percent of the universal health care workforce is dedicated to mental
health?
Some real life examples may help
to illustrate the serious nature of this ongoing issue:
-A 19 year old from New Hampshire
recently spent 10 days in the common area of a Maine emergency room waiting for
a bed to open in the mental health facility.
-A man who allegedly stole the
equivalent of $5 in snacks died in jail as he waited for space to open up in a
mental health center.
-A woman visited an Illinois
emergency room 750 times over the course of 10 years searching for mental
health assistance. The cost was a sobering $2.5 million.
These are problems that could be
easily eliminated by integrating mental health care professionals into the
emergency room staff of every major hospital.
With examples like this, it is
easy to see why deep budget cuts have negatively impacted the quality of
treatment for those who suffer from chronic mental illness. A recent
heartbreaking report
from the Treatment Advocacy Center found that at least one in four fatal
police encounters involved the death of an individual suffering from a severe
mental illness.
Individuals suffering from
various mental illnesses who do not receive proper treatment often find
themselves in the country's criminal justice system. Aside from the very real
concern that these people will fail to recover without treatment, this also
results in a significantly higher cost to taxpayers and makes for a more
dangerous landscape, both for patients and law enforcement professionals.
While a tragic event can often
increase public attention to mental health needs, the passion is rarely sustained
after the news media cameras stop rolling.
A solution to this healthcare
problem is to staff hospitals with mental health professionals, and find a way
to open additional beds in treatment facilities---places that are specially
trained on how to handle the vast spectrum of mental illness. Until that
occurs, tragedies, much like the gut wrenching 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary
School shooting---that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults---may
continue to happen. The perpetrator of this specific incident is known to have
suffered from various mental illnesses, and was not able to obtain successful
help.
