It is health policy long overdue. Ohio needs a comprehensive Mental Health Parity law. For the first time ever the U.S. Surgeon General, David Satcher, has issued a report on mental health. The report addresses the prevalence and consequences of mental illness and calls for reducing stigma and increasing access to treatment. It includes action necessary to improve mental health in the new millennium.
Mental disorders are real medical conditions, the report points out.
They are as serious as cancer and heart disease in terms of premature death and lost productivity. Forty-four million Americans, about one in five, experience mental disorder each year. Four of the ten leading causes of disability for people over age five are mental disorders. Almost fourteen million children experience mental disorder each year. The serious consequences of untreated mental disorders are increasingly evident with suicides, a common byproduct, accounting for more deaths than homicide.