A joint resolution to designate the week of October 5, 1986, through October 11, 1986, as "Mental Illness Awareness Week".
PL 99-404 (S.J.Res.298), enacted 08/27/1986

100 STAT. 914 
PUBLIC LAW 99-404—AUG. 27, 1986 
Public Law 99-404 
-'-'- '''•\^^" 
99th Congress 
5"?)K : ' 
: 
Joint Resolution 
Aug. 27, 1986 
To designate the week of October 5, 1986, through October 11, 1986, as "Mental 
[S.J. Res. 298] 
Illness Awareness Week". 
Whereas mental illness is a problem of grave concern and con-
sequence in American society, though one widely but unneces-
sarily feared and misunderstood; 
Whereas thirty-one to forty-one million Americans annually suffer 
•from clearly diagnosable mental disorders involving significant 
disability with respect to employment, attendance at school, or 
independent living; 
Whereas more than ten million Americans are disabled for long 
periods of time by schizophrenia, manic depressive disorder, and 
major depression; 
Whereas between 30 and 50 per centum of the homeless suffer 
serious, chronic forms of mental illness; 
Whereas alcohol, drug, and mental disorders affect almost 19 per 
centum of American adults in any six-month period; 
Whereas mental illness in at least twelve million children interferes 
with vital development and maturational processes; 
Whereas mental disorder-related deaths are estimated to be thirty-
three thousand, with suicide accounting for at least twenty-nine 
thousand, although the real number is thought to be at least three 
times higher; 
Whereas our growing population of the elderly is particularly 
vulnerable to mental illness; 
Whereas mental disorders result in staggering costs to society, 
totalling an estimated $106,200,000,000 in direct treatment and 
support and indirect costs to society, including lost productivity; 
Whereas mental illness is increasingly a treatable disability with 
excellent prospects for amelioration and recovery when properly 
recognized; 
Whereas families of mentally ill citizens and those persons them-
selves have begun to join self-help groups seeking to combat the 
unfair stigma of the diseases, to support greater national invest-
ment in research, and to advocate for an adequate continuum of 
care from hospital to community; 
Whereas in recent years there have been unprecedented major 
research developments bringing new methods and technology to 
the sophisticated and objective study of the functioning of the 
brain and its linkages to both normal and abnormal behavior; 
Whereas research in recent decades has led to a wide array of new 
and more effective modalities of treatment Ot)oth somatic and 
psychosocial) for some of the most incapacitating forms of mental 
illness (including schizophrenia, major affective disorders, pho-
bias, and phobic disorders); 
Whereas appropriate treatment of mental illness has been dem-
onstrated to be cost effective in terms of restored productivity, 
PUBLIC LAW 99-404—AUG. 27, 1986 
100 STAT. 915 
reduced utilization of other health services, and lessened social 
dep)endence; and 
Whereas recent and unparalleled growth in scientific knowledge 
about mental illness has generated the current emergence of a 
new threshold of opportunity for future research advances and 
fruitful application to specific clinical problems: Now, therefore, 
be it 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled. That the week beginning 
on October 5, 1986, is designated as "Mental Illness Awareness 
Week", and the President is authorized and requested to issue a 
proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe 
such week with appropriate ceremonies and activities. 
Approved August 27, 1986. 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S.J. Res. 298: 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 132 (1986): 
Apr. 22, considered and passed Senate. 
Aug. 13, considered and passed House.