Mental Health Reform: What It Would Really Take.
In today's society there is a greater awareness of mental illnesses. With this greater awareness one might assume that there would be a substantial increase in government involvement or funding in the area of mental illness treatment. Unfortunately this isn't the case in the U.S. today. There are hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness that go untreated. These potential patients go untreated for many reasons. These reasons are discussed in the Time article "Mental Health Reform: What Would it Really Take.
The article gives some examples of what has happened to people that have not received mental treatment due to lack of government funding. These mentally ill people often don't receive treatment because the police are often picking up the mentally ill and they are not trained to diagnose mental problems so the problems go unnoticed. This can prove to be fatal. The article tells about a New York man who asked to be hospitalized because he was terrified of phantom voices instead of the correct treatment budget conscious officials most often referred him to short term emergency care. Last year the man in a psychotic state shoved a woman from a subway platform to her death under the wheels of the train. The article also discusses some possible solutions that could help stop such tragedies. The main person that is speaking out for more government aid is vice-president's wife Tipper Gore. Tipper openly states that she too has suffered from mental illness. She says that she had suffered with depression for a period of time. She is advocating an increase in government funding to improve access to care for others. She would also like employers to help by providing equal insurance coverage for mental and physical health. Currently insurance plans can charge higher co-payments for psychaitric visits than for other medical care.