By Clyde Noel
Town Crier Correspondent
Myths, misunderstandings, stereotypes and negative attitudes characterize the issue of mental health. A stigma emerges because people feel uneasy or embarrassed to talk about behavior that is out of the ordinary.
Mary Hiland, president and CEO of Alliance for Community Care, told an audience of Los Altos Rotarians last Thursday that mental illness is not a form of intellectual disability or brain damage. It’s an illness just like any other; yet, support for the mentally ill is denied.
Hiland said Alliance for Community Care exists to help individuals achieve mental and emotional health, reach their potential and fully participate in life.
Mental illness takes many forms, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. Mental disorders prevent people from carrying out essential aspects of daily life.
“Mental illnesses are health conditions characterized by alterations in people’s thinking, mood or behavior associated with distress and/or impaired functioning,” Hiland said. “Of American adults, 5.4 percent have a serious mental illness.”
Statistics show 23 percent of American adults (ages 18 and older) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, but only half report impairment of their daily functioning due to the mental disorder.
Six percent of adults have addictive disorders, and 3 percent have both mental and addictive disorders. Hiland said several well-known personalities, such as Robin Williams and Patty Duke, have mental disorders.
“After Sept. 11, half the people were depressed,” Hiland said. “The events of Sept. 11 shook the very foundation of humanity regardless of your status.”
Hiland discussed the myths associated with mental illness. Research has shown that the vast majority of people who are violent do not suffer from mental illness. Public perception has assumed mental illness to be linked with violence, but in fact violent behavior by persons with mental illness represents only a minor proportion of all violent crimes.
“The biggest issue is stigma, and that is the major reason they do not receive treatment,” Hiland said. “We must urge President Bush to support enactment of parity in 2001, and understand that insurance discrimination against people with mental illnesses is unfair.”
Hiland cited examples of insurance companies not covering mental illness, as a result of which mentally ill people are kicked out of the house and the government ends up picking up the cost of treatment.
People with mental disorders, including those who are homeless, require ongoing access to a full range of treatment and rehabilitation services. Most people with mental disorders do not need hospitalization and even fewer require long-term institutional care. “Look at the whole person. Help them get their skills back,” Hiland said.
In response to a question about the homeless in Silicon Valley, Hiland said 30 percent of the homeless have a mental illness or history of substance abuse.
Give them treatment and the substance abuse stops. In San Francisco the figure is more like 70 percent.
Hiland oversees a budget of $24 million and has 500 employees who serve more than 4,000 people.
She secures the necessary funding, including aid for people with mental illnesses going through the justice system.
