access to improved treatments, drugs
Mentally ill face obstacles to adequate care
BY MARINA DUNDJERSKI
UCLA Today Staff
While the plight of people suffering from mental illness has been
improving since 1949 when the World Health Organization first included
mental health in its definition of overall well-being, change has
not been swift or widespread enough, said experts gathered at UCLA
on Nov. 12 for a mental-health forum.
What’s more, a new nationwide poll released during the Harvard
Health Forum, cosponsored by UCLA and held in a packed Neuropsychiatric
Institute Auditorium, found that Americans with chronic mental illnesses
are more dissatisfied with their care (41%) than those with other
chronic physical illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease (17%).
“The system for delivering mental-health care seems to be
failing when compared to the system we have for caring for those
with other chronic illnesses,” said David Blumenthal, director
of the Harvard Forums on Health, which commissioned the poll.
The poll also found that 22% of respondents with chronic mental
conditions described their own care as “fair” or “poor,”
compared with 9% of those with chronic physical illnesses. And 37%
with mental illnesses said they were unable to see a specialist
because of cost, compared with 22% of those with physical illnesses.
Five to 7% of Americans have some form of significant mental illness,
said Gerald Levey, vice chancellor for UCLA medical sciences and
dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine. Among the major obstacles
they face to getting adequate care are stigma, treatment limitations,
cost and inadequate health benefits.
The good news, said Andrew Leuchter, UCLA’s vice chair of
psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, is that treatments are developing
rapidly. For example, there are now more than 20 effective anti-depressants
as well as improved treatments for schizophrenia, he said.
“Most patients with psychiatric illness can now look forward
to significant improvements in their function,” Leuchter said.
“Many patients will, in fact, have a complete remission of
many of the symptoms of their illness. The less encouraging news
is that it’s very difficult to apply these treatments systematically
for the benefit of patients in the community.”
Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said that he plans
to submit a ballot initiative in 2004 to raise $600 million for
outreach and integrated services for mental-health treatment based
on a 1% surcharge to be paid by Californians earning $1 million
or more.
Several individuals who have long suffered from mental illness,
including actress/author Carrie Fisher and Vice Chairman Philip
Burguières of the Houston Texans football team, shared their
insights on living with such illnesses as clinical depression, bipolar
disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“I want people to know what depression is — what it
looks like, what it feels like and what to do about it — because
I’ve lived with it,” said journalist Kathy Cronkite,
daughter of TV newscaster Walter Cronkite. “If there were
a dedicated campaign against mental illness like the ones against
cancer and AIDS, we could raise awareness, battle stigma and, most
importantly, get people the help they need.”
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