The primary reasons for this failure to find help for their mental illnesses are lingering social stigmas and financial and other barriers, according to the report.
Mental illnesses are physical illnesses.
This summer, President Clinton required all federal employee health plans to offer the same coverage for mental disorders as for other illnesses, but negotiations on how to implement that order continue and many other private plans still offer considerably less mental health protection. Congress remains divided on the issue, with opponents saying mental health parity would open employers to large and unpredictable costs. 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.