An estimated 43.7 million American adults — 18.6 percent of all adults in the U.S. — suffer from a mental illness. But only 13.4 percent of U.S. adults get any mental health treatment at all. The reasons why are complex and include structural policy problems like the lack of mental health research and a growing psychiatrist shortage.
There’s at least one way that all of us, however, can help more people get the care they need. It’s through understanding and combatting the stigma associated with mental illness.
Mental health experts and thought leaders Mohini Venkatesh of the National Council for Behavior, John MacPhee of the Jed Foundation and William Emmet of the Kennedy Forum discussed the issue of stigma in mental illness with psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz at a panel last week during the 2015 Clinton Foundation Health Matters Summit in Indian Wells, California. During the event, they zeroed in on some crucial ways communities can help more people who suffer from mental illness get the care they need:
1. Make sure “going to the doctor” includes going to a therapist, if needed.
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MacPhee encouraged every individual to “own” the fact that we are all, in one way or another, affected by mental illness. Whether we have a loved one who’s struggling, someone we’ve known who died of suicide, or even personal struggles, talking about mental health illness can demystify it, which might then empower others to seek help.
Talking openly about mental illness signals to others that they’re not alone, and it also opens up a dialogue about how we can better treat people with mental illness in the future, which happens to be the impetus behind Huffington Post’s Stronger Together series.
“[If] every individual can own it, where we all talk about it and we can all admit it, we can really accelerate the removal of the stigma and prejudice around it,” said MacPhee. “This is an issue that affects all of us.”
