In today's political climate in which we are debating whether not feeding your child at school is a sign of love when you hit the hard times (courtesy Paul Ryan), I hesitate to bring politics up. After all, I am really talking about mental illness. My first focus is on educating and supporting. But clearly, access to treatment is a political issue. The debate over the ACA and Medicaid are closely connected to whether people will or will not have access to care for mental illness. And as I have talked about previously, when we don't provide access....we replace one cost with others. We pay in costs through the criminal justice system. We pay in the costs of homelessness. And we pay through broken families. So, before I turn off my audience, here is the article I am citing: http://bit.ly/1ffGZhc.
So, the basic premise is that providing access to healthcare for mentally ill people will finally take the issue out of the criminal justice system. And it will put it where it belongs, into the arena of public health. I'm going to ask a question here. What do we truly get when we criminalize the mentally ill? Is the cost of trying and housing someone somehow less than the cost of providing treatment? I don't think so. Are mental illness and substance abuse better treated in jail? Most of the time, no. If you look at the costs of incarcerating one prisoner for a year, you will find a wide range of estimates. I saw one estimate of over $23,000 per year. I also saw estimates that were closer to $170,000 per year. For one person. How is that cheaper than treatment? How does spending on incarceration of a mentally ill individual help us to address the issue of recidivism? What do we gain from jailing a mentally ill human being over and over again?
Does avoiding the costs of treatment help us in terms of eradicating homelessness? And what is the impact of a large homeless population on our cities? Since we started defunding mental health treatment, have we decreased homelessness? Don't think so. What do you think? And finally, is our approach to homelessness about punishment or treatment? It is clear to me that our current political climate is one that punishes weakness. And it seems to take the view that mental illness is a weakness. Not a biochemical disease.
As a woman who has dealt up close and personal with the cost to family of dealing with mental illness, I think that is the most important facet of this issue. I am so committed to providing humane solutions for mental illness. For the sake of the family. And the sake of the patient. There is a long- term impact to families when access to treatment is limited. Mental illness isn't a one person disease. We learned this again when Gus Deeds committed suicide after trying to kill his Dad. After he was sent home after an evaluation showed he was in crisis and dangerous. How many more people will we sacrifice due to a lack of treatment? When will we get our priorities straight?
So, the basic premise is that providing access to healthcare for mentally ill people will finally take the issue out of the criminal justice system. And it will put it where it belongs, into the arena of public health. I'm going to ask a question here. What do we truly get when we criminalize the mentally ill? Is the cost of trying and housing someone somehow less than the cost of providing treatment? I don't think so. Are mental illness and substance abuse better treated in jail? Most of the time, no. If you look at the costs of incarcerating one prisoner for a year, you will find a wide range of estimates. I saw one estimate of over $23,000 per year. I also saw estimates that were closer to $170,000 per year. For one person. How is that cheaper than treatment? How does spending on incarceration of a mentally ill individual help us to address the issue of recidivism? What do we gain from jailing a mentally ill human being over and over again?
Does avoiding the costs of treatment help us in terms of eradicating homelessness? And what is the impact of a large homeless population on our cities? Since we started defunding mental health treatment, have we decreased homelessness? Don't think so. What do you think? And finally, is our approach to homelessness about punishment or treatment? It is clear to me that our current political climate is one that punishes weakness. And it seems to take the view that mental illness is a weakness. Not a biochemical disease.
As a woman who has dealt up close and personal with the cost to family of dealing with mental illness, I think that is the most important facet of this issue. I am so committed to providing humane solutions for mental illness. For the sake of the family. And the sake of the patient. There is a long- term impact to families when access to treatment is limited. Mental illness isn't a one person disease. We learned this again when Gus Deeds committed suicide after trying to kill his Dad. After he was sent home after an evaluation showed he was in crisis and dangerous. How many more people will we sacrifice due to a lack of treatment? When will we get our priorities straight?
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