DBSA President's Blog: Special Edition
I Want to DO SOMETHING About Virginia Tech
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Additional Information:
Additional Resources:
Federal Budget Cuts:
It's time to just say `NO!` to the federal budget cuts vital to programs for mental health consumers. Last month, the mental health community received a huge blow when the Administration released its budget recommendations for 2008 and projected savings for the next five years.
Click on the link below to send a letter to your legislators NOW asking them to say 'NO!' to the federal budget cuts!
Contact your legislators.
Mental Health Parity:
For the past 5 years, we as mental health advocates have been working diligently to pass Mental Health Parity legislation that would ensure that individuals living with a mental illness are afforded the same level of insurance coverage as individuals with a physical illness. And for the past five years, we’ve faced great disappointment.
But this past February, a bi-partisan group of Senators passed legislation, S.558, that would finally end insurance coverage discrimination between physical and mental illnesses. It passed the Committee by an 18-3 vote!
The action by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee marks the first approval by a Congressional Committee of parity legislation since
In March a companion bill, H.R. 1367, was introduced in the House of Representatives. If both bills are passed, it would end a decade-long congressional deadlock on the issue.
To date, more than 2,500 letters have been sent by constituents to their legislators. While it’s important to always celebrate our victories, big and small, now is not the time to rest on our laurels.
Click on the link below to send a letter to your legislators NOW asking them to support Mental Health Parity!
Contact your legislators. | [Posted April 20, 2007] - The events at Virginia Tech were so horrifying. No one should ever have to face that. And no one should have to live with the devastation that will bring to the thousands of people facing the aftermath.
 While we do not fully know what was going on with Cho Seung-Hui, it’s tempting to play arm chair psychiatrist and diagnose what his problems were and what solutions we might have had to solve those problems.
It’s important to remember, however, that only a trained psychiatrist can diagnose mental illnesses and often it takes years and years to come to the correct diagnosis and treatment. It’s also important to understand that the vast majority of people with mental illnesses are absolutely no threat to others. To the contrary, people with mental illnesses are twice as likely to be victims of violence.
Having said that, we do know that Mr. Cho had used mental health services to some extent, but were they enough? Given the current state of mental health care in the U.S., it’s sad to say but probably not.
One of the frustrations in dealing with these real medical illnesses is that what we don’t know about mental health far outweighs what we do know. And most frustratingly for any of us who live with mental health conditions is that the research money our government puts into that National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is a pittance when compared to any other illnesses.
This is especially frustrating when you consider that depression and bipolar disorder are the number one and number six most disabling conditions in the world. So if we are looking to address the problems that lead to the horrible events at Virginia Tech, the first thing we need is more funding for research so we can understand and better treat these real medical illnesses.
So if you want to DO SOMETHING, write your senators to ask that funding for mental health research be increased.
Click on “connect and be counted.” It’s easy, private, fast and free.
Another area of great frustration is that the mental health system has been so terribly under-funded that a commission set up by President Bush has stated it is so badly broken it needs to be completely transformed not fixed but transformed. Right now if I go to my doctor with a stomach ache, chances are good that my insurance will pay a significant portion of that expense. If I go in with a mental health condition, chances are even better that my insurance will cover almost none of the costs. A bill to mandate that insurance covers both mental health and all other health equitably, evenly and fairly, is on the floor of the House and Senate right now. If it passes, it has the chance of making mental health care more affordable, and more accessible, so that people seek treatment and recover. So if we are looking to address the problems that lead to the horrible events at Virginia Tech, the next thing we need is insurance parity so that these illnesses are covered by insurance in the same way any other illnesses is covered by health insurance.
So if you want to DO SOMETHING, write or call your legislators and ask them to vote to ensure mental health is covered like any other health expense.
Click on “connect and be counted.” It’s easy, private, fast and free.
Yet a third area of great frustration is that even now the government is looking to cut 76 million dollars out of the already meager mental health budget for next year. This means even more people will literally be sentenced to a life without the care they need. For some this will be a death sentence. So if we are looking to address the problems that lead to the horrible events at Virginia Tech, the next thing we need is for money to be fully restored to the Center for Mental Health Services budget and for this appropriation to be increased so that it is at the same level that is spent on services for all other illnesses in the country.
So if you want to DO SOMETHING, write or call your legislators and ask them to restore full funding for the Center for Mental Health Services in the 2007 budget.
Click on “connect and be counted.” It’s easy, private, fast and free.
We can not sit and wring our hands about this terrible situation. We have to take some action so that people are getting the help they need to reach recovery. It’s up to each of us.
page created: April 20, 2007 |
page updated: April 24, 2007 |
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