PSYCHOLOGY TODAY is proud to present our First Annual Mental Health Awards, sponsored by HotSpring Portable Spas and Natren, the Probiotic Specialist
Almost every family in America is affected by mental illness. Each year, 28% of the U.S. population suffers from a diagnosable behavioral, emotional or addictive disorder, and as many as 750,000 Americans attempt suicide. The surgeon general recently declared mental health a national priority, critical not only for productivity and well-being but for physical health, as well. In this spirit, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY is pleased to announce its First Annual Mental Health Awards, recognizing courageous people who have helped us feel and function better. Nominations were sought in eight categories (government official, business leader, media professional, caregiver, mental health professional, researcher, advocate and survivor) from more than 300 top mental health professionals, with final selections made by seven of our editors, both journalists and psychologists. We will present our honorees with a handsome statuette--the Psi--which artist Richard Becerra sculpted for PSYCHOLOGY TODAY. The Psi, like our honorees, symbolizes renewal, rebirth and recovery--the process of struggling and triumphing over mental illness. We're pleased to present the inspiring stories of this year's winners, along with a call to action from Senator Aden Specter (R-Penn.) and a congratulatory note from President William Jefferson Clinton.
A CALL TO ACTION
My deep concern about mental illness dates back to my days as district attorney of Philadelphia, when I visited Farview Mental Institution in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and was appalled to see patients treated as inmates, barely functioning, wandering around in medicated stupors. I found Farview's practices almost barbaric.
Since then, we have made great improvements in our treatment of the mentally ill, taken strides toward destigmatizing mental illness, and launched a campaign to educate the masses, whose chief perception of the mentally ill has come until recently from popular culture. Today, the words mental illness no longer invoke Olivia DeHavilland "going insane" in an asylum in The Snake Pit of 1948, or the giant Indian "Chief" Bromden's interminable incarceration in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The stories presented in those classic movies are entertaining, but do not give a full or accurate portrayal of the mentally ill.
I believe that our centuries-long struggle with how to treat mental illness has brought us to a unique crossroads in scientific knowledge and treatment breakthroughs. The time has come for us to harness our newfound understanding and ongoing research on the brain and the genome, and to give mental illness full parity--the same health insurance benefits as physical ailments now receive--so that these great treatment breakthroughs can actually reach the sufferers.
Given the proven benefits to society and what numerous studies have shown to be the low costs of providing mental health care, I am pleased to be a cosponsor of last year's "Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act," which calls for "full" parity for illnesses such as schizophrenia, major depression and autism. We must act now to get this done; we have no more excuses.
Another ray of light on the mental health horizon is the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program, which will require by fiscal year 2001 that all of the 285 participating health plans provide full parity for both mental health and substance abuse services--a great achievement for the program's nine million beneficiaries. I am hopeful that the foresightedness of the Office of Personnel Management will carry over into our other Federal safety-net health programs.
I remain enthralled by the advances spawned by the crown jewel of the federal government, the National Institutes of Health. Substantial investment in the NIH is crucial to allow the continuation of breakthrough research into the next decade.
In 1981, when I was first elected to the Senate, NIH funding was less than $3.6 billion; this year it will be $17.9 billion, a 95% inflation-adjusted increase. Funding for the National Institute on Mental Health has also increased greatly, by 113% with inflation adjustment, from only $190.4 million in 1981, to $978 million today.
John Dewey once said, "Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination." The "Decade of the Brain"--as Congress and researchers dubbed the 1990s--yielded many discoveries of the origins of mental illness and paved the way for promising future research, clearly yielded by "audacity" of great proportions! Among the highlights:
Finding the Genes Responsible
Scientists now understand that vulnerability to mental illness has a genetic component, which acts in conjunction with various environmental and non-genetic factors. Researchers now face the daunting but incredibly exciting task of combing the entire human genome, which is already 90% sequenced. Linkage studies using powerful technologies to pinpoint genes from among the 50,000 expressed in the brain will eventually connect genetic variations with mental illnesses.
Repairing Brain Damage
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