Mental Illness: Moving Forward

A disheveled woman sits on a street corner screaming at a garbage can. A teenage son remains distant when he's at home with his parents, with moods swinging from ecstatic one day to despondent the next.  A mother expresses bewildering but ongoing disinterest in her newborn child. What do all three of these people have in common? The answer: mental illness.

Nearly 10 million Americans suffer from "severe mental illness," but millions may go without treatment.

When someone is suffering from a mental illness, it can present itself in a variety of ways: obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, schizo-effective disorder, and anxiety are just a few.

A person suffering from a serious mental illness, like schizophrenia, might struggle to hold down a fulltime job; if she loses her job, she might also lose her dwelling place. Additionally, individuals with mental illness oftentimes struggle with maintaining interpersonal relationships. Even if the individual doesn't lose her home, she often loses her closest connections and social safety net as a result of the mental illness.

This problem can exacerbate itself, as isolation can hinder recovery or treatment in a variety of ways. Without having a loved one by your side to help navigate the myriad of programs and resources available, failure is an outcome seen all too often.

Scooter Haase, director of Mental Health America of Lancaster County explained, "When someone is experiencing depression, it can be hard enough to get on the phone and make phone calls and make all the connections."

The federal government spends $130 billion annually on mental health, but it is spread across 112 different programs-- programs that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found to be lacking in coordination.

Furthermore, agencies do not collect data on how mental health dollars are spent, so there is no formal way of tracking whether they are being used effectively. Many times, programs provide needed resources, but they don't effectively connect the resources to people who need them.

Mr. Haase relayed the story of one prisoner who had been going to his organization's mental health support group meetings while in prison.  When it was time for this prisoner to be released, he needed someone to physically accompany him to get his medical assistance, his identification, and the various other items needed to continue treatment outside of prison.

The ex-prisoner would not have been able to do this without the system that Mental Health America of Lancaster has that pairs patients with buddies to support them. Resources can be available, but unless they're connected with the intended recipients, they're ineffective.

The government needs a system to track which programs it gives grants. With such a system, the programs that are working could be rewarded and ineffective programs would be enabled to glean best practices.

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) sponsored legislation to increase accountability so we can better understand how federal mental health and substance abuse treatment funds are used in each state. His bill would also seek to summarize best practice models in the states, highlighting programs that are cost effective and that utilize evidence based care. Additionally, the legislation would create an interagency committee to coordinate the current patchwork of multiple federal programs designed to address mental health.

The Energy & Commerce Committee, of which I am a member, is slated to mark up this bill in the near future; the mark up comes not a moment too soon. It is time to take a meaningful step forward in improving our mental health care system.

The resources exist to assist the woman yelling at the garbage can, the troubled teenage son, and the mother suffering from postpartum depression, but better stewardship is required to ensure the resources are actually delivered to victims.  Rep. Murphy's legislation represents a move in the right direction.

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Interested members of the media may contact Anna Swick at anna.swick@mail.house.gov