Time For Action

The Hidden Cost Of Untreated Mental Illness

As the debate over how to balance California's 2010 budget begins again to take center stage, one matter that can't be ignored is life-saving health care for people living with mental illness.

It is said that a society may be judged by the way it treats its most unfortunate. How, then, should we consider our State, our legislators, and ourselves when it comes to the treatment of the one in four California residents and their families that contend with mental illness at some point in their lives? Practically all California residents work alongside, worship with, or know someone in their community who lives with mental illness. It is estimated that more than two million children, adults and senior adults in California are affected by a severe and persistent mental illness every year. Thousands rely on the state and county public mental health care system for necessary treatment and services. Current and proposed State budget cuts in mental health not only threaten the health of our families and our communities, they escalate high costs in other critical sectors, such as emergency departments, health and social service agencies, and schools.

The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than $100 billion each year in the United States but, more importantly, there can be no price tag attached to the lives that are literally at stake. Treatment works—if you can get it. And the “if” is becoming a more common peril in California. Treatment helps prevent suicide, homelessness, school drop outs, child abuse and neglect, and incarceration for felonies that are committed during untreated severe mental illness. State mental health services represent hope for recovery and prevention of relapse. Without them, more people will end up hospitalized, in shelters, on the street, in jail or dead. This is not elevated language for the sake of argument; the results are real. Mental illness does not discriminate. It can strike anyone at any time. It affects Democrats and Republicans alike. Governor Schwarzenegger and our legislators must stand together to save mental health care. We must send them that message now.

What's At Risk

Further cuts to mental health services are proposed by the Governor even while the need for services is increasing. In October 2009, California's unemployment rate reached approximately 12.3 percent. Unemployed workers are four times more likely than those with jobs to report symptoms of severe mental illness. Four times as many report thoughts of harming themselves. Against the rising need for services come cuts to basic mental health care in public hospitals and clinics funded through sales tax and vehicle licensing fees. With high unemployment and with most people that have jobs wary of spending, the sales tax funding source has dwindled.

Many assume that mental health funds from Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, will take care of the problem. However, Prop 63 restricted those funds for the development of new programs, not to be used to backfill cuts to existing programs. The Prop 63 funds are decreasing, as well, and in the coming two years will fall back to the levels of five years ago. Due to the economic downturn, California now has fewer residents who must pay the 1% income tax on incomes over one million dollars. In spite of these losses, the Governor once again has proposed to raid the Proposition 63 funds and put his plan to the voters in June, even though virtually the same plan was resoundingly rejected by voters last year.

Time for Action

California needs to protect and strengthen existing mental health services in local communities. To do this, the legislature cannot balance the budget through cuts alone. Surveys have shown that voters are willing to seek new sources of revenues to pay for safety net programs.

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation's largest grassroots organization dedicated to helping individuals and families living with serious mental illness, has made the states' budget crisis its top priority nationwide. The California Chapter of NAMI is working hard to educate the public about the need for treatment of mental illness because, too often, mental illness is overlooked, marginalized, trivialized or stigmatized.

But NAMI can't do it alone.

Here's what you can do:

Contact the Governor:

Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-463
Email: http://gov.ca.gov/interact#email

Contact your Representatives:

Search for your representatives here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html

Contact standing members of the Assembly Health Committee:

Jones (Chair), Fletcher (Vice Chair), Adams, Ammiano, Block, Carter, Conway, De La Torre, De León, Emmerson, Gaines, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Lowenthal, Nava, V. Pérez.
(916) 319-2097.

Contact standing members of the Assembly Human Services Committee:

Beall (Chair), Ammiano (Vice Chair), T. Berryhill, Hall, Logue.
(916) 319-2089.

Contact standing members of the Senate Health Committee:

Alquist (Chair), Strickland (Vice-Chair), Aanestad, Cedillo, Cox, DeSaulnier, Leno, Maldonado, Negrete McLeod, Pavley and Wolk. (916) 651-4111.

Contact standing members of the Senate Human Services Committee:

Liu (Chair), Maldonado (Vice-Chair), Alquist, Runner and Yee.
(916) 651-1524.

Contact the California Department of Mental Health:

1600 9th Street, Rm. 151
Sacramento, CA 95814
dmh.dmh@dmh.ca.gov
(800) 896-4042 or (916) 654-3890.

Help us make a difference. As a society, we will be judged how we treat our less fortunate in the direst of times. We need the help of voters to save mental health services in order to save lives. Preserving California's funding for mental health services and community support systems is essential for the future of our people.

Trula M. LaCalle, Ph.D.

Executive Director, NAMI California

Link: www.namicalifornia.org