Policy Experts Call for New Mental Health Care Agenda

Mental health and other policy experts have called for legisla- tors, policy makers, and funders to acknowledge the critical role of mainstream institutions in providing mental health services in America's informal mental health system.

The experts, who gathered last week at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Fundamental Policy: Spotlight on Mental Health conference in Washington, D.C., noted that some 30 percent of Social Security recipients, 18 percent of persons in prison, 25 percent of juve- nile offenders, 25 percent of the homeless population, and 10 percent of youth in schools have serious mental health condi- tions, yet many agencies within these sectors do not have the tools to properly address such conditions.

To further shed light on these issues, the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mental Health Policy Research released a series of issue briefs at the conference which found, among other things, that minorities have less access to mental health services but equal or better mental health status compared to whites, despite generally lower socioeconomic status and more social problems. Overall, healthcare providers have been slow to adopt proven treatments and medications for mental illness, meaning that the most effective treatments do not reach everyone who needs them.

"With more than one in four of Americans dealing with some form of mental illness in the course of a year, and given our shift from a system dominated by mental hospitals to a network of community-based care, public institutions like schools, hospi- tals, and prisons are becoming primary providers of mental health services," said MacArthur Foundation president Jonathan Fanton. "As long as the mental health role of these institutions remains unacknowledged and unsupported, many people with mental illness will go without effective treatment -- at great cost to them, their families, and their communities."

"Policy Experts Call for Broad New Agenda for Mental Health
Care: Research, Relationships, and Resources Needed to Bridge Costly Gaps." John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Press Release 4/07/08.