Ultrasis Interactive Healthcare fka LSE:ULT

[woolworth]

This is 2013, not 1913. We know what the problems are. Twenty-five percent of adults suffer a diagnosable mental disorder each year, and mental health problems affect 20 percent of young people.

Military personnel have the highest rate of suicides in history, and the suicide rate in veterans has passed the civilian population. Millions of people don't have access to the mental health care they need. College-aged shooters are carrying out some of the worst atrocities of our time. Report after report, headline after headline details the endless need for mental health in our nation.

And we don't need to turn on the news to see this pain. We see it in our friends and families. We watch helplessly as someone spirals out of control and lands in a hospital or grave. We do everything we can to get a loved one treatment, medication, therapy or whatever we can to help them. An endless amount of people whisper to others about diagnoses and specifics of behavior they thought they would never have to witness.

We keep repeating patterns of identifying what's wrong and planning to talk about it. I am tired of the talking. Let's take action.

I applaud the recent efforts of Obamacare making mental health treatment more accessible, the Mental Health Parity Act and the White House's plan to train more providers to offer help to young people. However, leaders continuously say there is a need to increase services while ignoring the fact that approximately 66 percent of young people with a mental illness aren't seeking treatment. The dialogue about these issues shouldn't be happening just on Capitol Hill, it should be encouraged to be happening in homes everywhere in the country through powerful outreach campaigns.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-szabo/mental-illness-stigma_b_2665627.html?utm_hp_ref=tw