The Results of Our Stigma Towards Mental Illness
Our society's stigma against those with mental illness cost a lot. Because it causes people to reject seeing a doctor and causes insurance companies to limit what they will cover for mental health services, the cost to our society overall is great: from homeless people and lost work all the way to mass shootings. Mental health parity is about trying to make sure that insurance companies cover mental health as well as they cover physical health. Insurance companies, including Medicare, have put strict limits on mental health care but not on physical health care. |
| Mental Health Parity Press Conference, 2008 |
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| A protest to fight for mental health coverage in any health care plan. |
Imagine if we could push past that and begin to support people with mental illness. Eventually, the stigma would fall away and people would not be ashamed to see a doctor when they need one. There could be better and more outpatient clinics with everyone having the ability to pay or have Medicare/Medicaid.
There wouldn't have to be a several months' wait to see a psychiatrist for medications as there is now in many places.
The result for our society would be fantastic! Homeless people living on the streets muttering to themselves and to passersby in unintelligible language would be a thing of the past. We'd have a more productive society because more people would be utilizing their skills and knowledge instead of staying home due to mood disorders or other issues.
The numbers of people with mental illness and money costs of mental illness are staggering! Check out some of the costs of mental illness in the United States.
An interesting article to read is by Michael Friedman, Ph.D.:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), mental illness represents the biggest economic burden of any health issue in the world, costing $2.5 trillion in 2010; this burden is projected to cost $6 trillion by 2030 with two-thirds of these costs attributed to disability and loss of work. And yet shockingly, of the 450 million people worldwide who suffer from mental health conditions, the majority (60 percent) do not receive any form of care, with 90 percent of people in developing countries receiving no form of care.