Fewer than 10 percent of insurance policies in this country provide coverage for severe mental illness equal to that for physical disorders. A family usually exhausts current benefits and, in the face of mounting bills, empties out a college fund, re-mortgages a home, or depletes a retirement nest egg. Many parents then face the decision of pushing their child into public welfare programs or not getting treatment at all, an option with dire consequences according to the latest research. If providing early treatment can halt schizophrenia's severe drain on personal finances and public resources, not to do so portends disastrous, long-term fiscal implications. As part of its national Campaign to End Discrimination, NAMI is working in more than 30 states to end unfair insurance practices, an effort that was spurred by last year's bipartisan push to pass federal legislation moving the country closer to full insurance parity for serious mental illness.
Most families run out of coverage long before running out of illness.
Now research is validating what direct experience has shown us. The spring 1997 edition of The Decade of the Brain features four articles by researchers who discuss data emerging from studies and programs that have been designed to assess the role of early intervention and its affect on the course and treatment of schizophrenia. How They Affect the Course and Treatment of the Illness. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., professor and vice chairman of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With schizophrenia, the deterioration process almost always occurs in the early phases of the illness, which may last up to five years after the initial psychotic episode.