In the first-ever U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, published late in 1999, David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., has provided a thorough overview of mental health issues, achievements, and challenges affecting our nation. Yet mental disorders, Satcher points out, are genuine, disabling health conditions with immense impact on individuals and families. In the United States and other economically developed countries, mental illness is the second leading cause of disability and premature mortality, according to a World Health Organization study cited in the Surgeon General's report. Unfortunately, nearly half of all Americans who have a severe mental illness do not seek treatment.
Stigma erodes confidence that mental disorders are valid, treatable health conditions.
It leads people to avoid socializing, employing or working with, or renting to or living near persons who have a mental disorder. . . A consequent inability or failure to obtain treatment reinforces destructive patterns of low self-esteem, isolation, and hopelessness. Stigma tragically deprives people of their dignity and interferes with their full participation in society. It must be overcome. Fundamental changes have occurred in the mental health field over the past 25 years, according to Satcher's report.