How the government helps the mentally ill

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What does the country do to aid those with mental illness?”

Source: WKSU

The article published in Mental Health America titled The Federal and State Role in Mental Health demonstrates this economic principle by explaining the laws and regulations that protect the mentally ill population by fighting discrimination, granting subsidies, and conducting research to find cures and treatment.

  The US government currently tries to create more normalcy around the idea mental illness in schools and workplaces. For example, schools enforce privacy standards as well as rules against bullies. Also, workplaces are prohibited from discriminating possible or current employees based on their mental illnesses. While I think it’s great that the government respects the privacy of its citizens, I believe more has to be done to eliminate the stigma. I think the government’s “hush hush” view on mental illness further perpetuates the stigma that is currently circulated. This is not to say I don’t believe in confidentiality in regards to illness, because if someone does not want to share their illness, they have the right to keep it a secret. But, sometimes in trying to protect someone’s privacy, it is as though we are pretending illness is not there.

   In addition to providing rights to the mentally ill, the government subsidizes programs and treatment for those that cannot afford it through Medicaid. Medicaid is the single largest provider of treatment for mental illness in the country. It is great that the government supports lower-income families to receive treatment for mental illness, however, I personally feel that there should be more support for people who don’t necessarily qualify for programs such as Medicaid. Inpatient and outpatient programs, such as ones that I have been treated in, are generally run by independent companies, not the government. Therefore, they require their patients or their insurance to cover the costs. Even for me, someone with very good insurance, some of the costs were left behind for my family to cover out of pocket. While it wasn’t an issue for me, for many families that don’t have a ton of money but don’t qualify for Medicaid, the medical bills for these treatments are very high and difficult to pay. This is very troublesome because programs like these can save lives, and they shouldn’t be considered a luxury or be limited to people who can afford the high costs. I met many people that would not be alive today if it weren’t for the money they could provide for their treatment.

    Finally, the government also subsidizes research for the improvement of healthcare for people with mental illness. It provides money to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to widen the knowledge we have on mental illness and medications for it. I think it is great that the government subsidizes this research because current medications and treatments can be faulty or have major side effects that can even worsen depression and anxiety.

In my next blog post I will research the question: What we should do to help Americans with mental illness?