Tipper Gore and Rosalynn Carter

America's mental health crisis. The 1999 White House Conference on Mental Health.

By Robert Epstein, published on September 01, 1999 - last reviewed on September 06, 2007

I want people to understand that the science is there and that the treatment is there. I also want to encourage people to go into this field. There's going to be a greater demand for guidance counselors in schools, for trained mental health professionals and for medical doctors who can recognize mental health issues. We have got to do a better job. And we can. Our science demands it.

Rosalynn Carter on Celebrity Advocates and Destigmatizing Mental Illness

Epstein: I bring you regards from Stuart Perry. He's on a one-man march from state to state to try to destigmatize mental illness.

Carter: Stu Perry had recovered from severe depression a few years ago. I invited him to talk at our local state university. He'd never made a speech before. He was so nervous. But he was great. We laughed and we cried as he told his story… Then he got a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to speak around the country. He's had a great experience.

Tell me about your book, Helping Someone with Mental Illness.

I've been interested in mental health for a very long time, and I've seen many changes. When I first became involved, nobody even talked about it. All of that has changed in just the last decade or so. We've learned so much about the brain and about mental illness. It can be diagnosed, it can be treated, and the overwhelming majority of people can lead productive lives. I don't think most people know that, so I wrote the book to try to help overcome the myths and misconceptions about mental illness.

With all that research, how did you make it so readable?

I write like I'm telling my mother what I'm doing. And she's 93 years old, so it has to be very simple. But I didn't want to leave out all the information I had gleaned from the research, so I put the notes and other material in the back for people who want more details about the issues.

How did you get involved in such an unpopular cause?

When Jimmy was campaigning, I had so many people ask me what my husband would do for a mentally ill family member or an emotionally disturbed child that I became really interested in the issue. When I mentioned that I might work on mental health, mental health advocates in Atlanta descended on me, saying, "We need your help, we need you." And the more I learned about the issue, the more I realized how much help was needed for people suffering from mental illness.

You note in your book that Jimmy Carter had launched the Mental Health Systems Act to improve mental health care but that the act was basically undone when Reagan came into office.

It was one of the greatest disappointments of my life when the Mental Health Act was not implemented. We had many meetings and many conferences at the White House on mental health when Jimmy was president, and it was very difficult to get the press to come. Someone from the White House press corps told me that mental health was not a very sexy issue. But this is an especially exciting time right now. The movement has just exploded.

I understand you direct a program on mental health at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

We work on anti-stigma initiatives, trying to educate the public about the true facts of mental illness, and we have an annual symposium, which is attended by leaders from over 60 mental health organizations. One of the programs I'm really excited about is a fellowship program for journalists. They do research on a mental health issue for a year and then report back to us. The program has led to some fine reporting about mental health and mental illness. One of our journalists has won several awards for his work on mental illness in prisons. Prisons are now the major mental health institutions in the country.

Which means, unfortunately, that we're not labeling people properly and that we're not providing appropriate treatments.

One of this year's reporters is doing a study of Abraham Lincoln, who suffered from severe depression much of his life. I think that will help overcome stigma, because if Abraham Lincoln suffered from severe depression and was still a good president, then anyone should be able to admit to having a problem with depression.

Your book also mentions a number of other notable people who have struggled with depression—Patty Duke, Rod Steiger, William Styron, Rodney Dangerfield, Margot Kidder and others. Why the focus on celebrities?

Because when celebrities or people who are really admired by the public admit to a mental illness, that helps eliminate stigma, and it's stigma that has held back our progress.