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States Can’t
Afford to Balance Their Budgets on the Backs of People With Mental
Illness
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More than 54 million (one in five) Americans have a mental
disorder in any given year.
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Four million of our nation’s young people have
a major mental illness that results in significant impairment
at home, at
school or with their peers.
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Depression and anxiety disorders — the two most common
mental illnesses — each affect 19 million American adults
annually. 1
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Access to care is vital for people who have mental illnesses.
Medicaid provides a critical source of support to people with
mental illness,
funding nearly 50 percent of state and local spending on mental
health services. 2
Mental Health Treatment Only Works if You Can Get It
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Treatment success rates for such disorders as schizophrenia
(60 percent), depression (more than 80 percent) and panic disorder
(70-90 percent) surpass those of other medical conditions, such
as heart disease (45-50 percent) and other chronic illnesses.
3
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Two-thirds
of Americans adults and one-third of children who need mental
health treatment do not receive it, and the rate is even
lower —and
the quality of care poorer—for ethnic and racial minorities.
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When people who have mental illnesses are denied access to services
and effective treatments, their chances for recovery are significantly
reduced. In fact, less than half of people with schizophrenia
think society provides adequate service for people with mental illness and
they believe that impedes their recovery and makes their life
satisfaction much lower than the general public’s. 4
States Pay for Mental
Health Care One Way or the Other
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Twenty-nine states cut funding for mental health services
in 20025, and most states anticipate more cuts to mental health
services in the future.
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Untreated and mistreated mental illness costs the
United States $105 billion in lost productivity, and $8 billion
in crime
and welfare expenditures each year. A 5.5 percent increase in spending
on mental health treatment by businesses and government could
cut these
costs in half. 6
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Medicaid cuts spell dire, long-term consequences for patient
health and government budgets because they lead to higher
hospital and primary care costs, greater reliance on correctional facilities
and welfare,
and other costs to society such as lost productivity
and suicide.
These expenses dwarf any money saved by initial
budget cuts.
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Oklahoma’s Mental Health Commissioner told state lawmakers
that recent budget cutbacks to community-based
mental health programs seem
to be sending clients into more expensive
crisis centers. After state budget cuts, patients at the Tulsa
Center
for Behavioral Health increased
49 percent between October 2002 and March
2003. 7
- In South Carolina, people with mental illness often wait
for days in emergency rooms or months in county jails
for an open bed in a psychiatric hospital. The shortage of beds has been
blamed on $23
million in cuts to the department’s
state appropriations between FY 2001 and
2002. 8
- In the absence of fully funded services
and treatments,
many people with mental illness find themselves
warehoused in our nation’s
prisons, jails and juvenile
justice systems. Fifty to 75 percent of young people in
juvenile justice
facilities
have
at least one
mental
disorder. Many have multiple
diagnoses and co-occurring substance abuse problems. 6,
7, 8
- Comprehensive
community-based mental health services for children
and adolescents can cut public hospital
admissions and lengths of stay, and reduce average days of juvenile detention
by about
40 percent. 9
- Under-funded mental health systems are
associated with high levels of homelessness
and poverty. On
any given
night, more than 600,000 people are homeless in the U.S., of which one-third
have a
serious
mental illness.10
Medicaid Background
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Medicaid, established in 1965 and jointly funded by
the federal and state governments, is a health insurance program
that
provides medical
assistance to individuals and families with low incomes and
few resources. It covers approximately 36 million people, including
children,
older
adults, people with disabilities and people who are eligible
to receive federally assisted income maintenance payments. 9
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Within
the broad national guidelines provided by the federal government,
each state establishes its own eligibility standards;
determines the type, amount, duration and scope of services; sets
the rate of payment for services; and administers its own program.11
For More Information
For more information or referrals for local services, contact your
local mental health association or the NMHA Resource Center.
National Mental Health Association
2000 North Beauregard Street, 6th Floor
Alexandria, VA 22311
Phone: 800-969-6642 (NMHA)
TTY: 800-433-5959
www.nmha.org |
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