Nearly half of all Americans with a severe mental illness do not seek treatment, although most would benefit significantly if they did, according to the first Surgeon's General's report on mental health. The report, released today, points to social stigmas about mental illness and to financial and other barriers to service as the main reasons why so many people are not being helped. The best way to reduce stigma, the report said, is to educate people about how successful treatment can be. This summer, President Clinton required all federal employee health plans to offer the same coverage for mental disorders as for other illnesses, but many other private plans still offer considerably less mental health protection.
Mental illnesses are physical illnesses.
The report describes the current mental health system as increasingly knowledgeable about how to help people, but increasingly unable to reach many who need help the most. In a preface to the report, Satcher wrote that greater racial, age, gender and cultural disparities exist in mental health delivery than in other areas of medicine and health. The report also notes that per capita spending on mental health in some segments of the private health market is declining much faster than spending on other conditions. Satcher said there would be follow-up reports on related subjects, including mental illness and the elderly, substance abuse and children. Laurie Flynn, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, praised the report and the surgeon general's willingness to address issues that have been long ignored.