Social Stigma Impeeding Mental Illness Recovery

Mental disorders fall along a continuum of severity. And just as in any continuum there is a group that falls in the severe end of that continuum. That proportion of the population is about 1 out of 17 Americans. According to NAMI.org the World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US and other developed countries are mental disorders. If sever mental illness is left untreated the consequences for the individual affected and even for the society in which this individual resides are staggering. Consequences such as unemployment, substance abuse , homelessness, and even suicide are high economic costs. Unproductive members of a society tend to drain the society of it’s wealth and emotional stability. It’s estimated that the economic cost of untreated mental illness is more that 100 billion dollars EACH YEAR in the United States.

The stigma of mental illness is a major contributer of untreated mental illnesses. This stigma is derived from the individuals within the society who feel that other individuals who suffer from mental illness are a drain on their society. This forces a vicious cycle that only makes things worse.

The best treatment as I have stated before is not only the pharmacological treatments but also the psychosocial treatments and supports. According to NAMI, nearly 90 percent of individuals experience a significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life.

With the strong stigma for mental illness that is out there however this experience of an improved quality of life is impeded from the erosion of the confidence levels of the individual who suffer from mental illness due to an increased feeling of pressure and hopelessness. We as an American Society have allowed stigma to warrant structural and financial barriers that stunt the ability to recover and be treated. It’s time to take these barriers down.

People With Mental Illness Target of New Gun Law

Psychiatr News February 1, 2008
Volume 43, Number 3, page 1
© 2008 American Psychiatric Association

In government news, supporters of a new gun-control law claim it might have prevented the deaths of 32 people last year in a massacre at Virginia Tech carried out by a student who was mentally ill. Some psychiatrists, however, say the law falls short as a meaningful way to reduce gun violence. The psychiatrists point is further proven with the recent shooting at NIU where the gunman had legally bought all FOUR of his weapons while being medicated for a mental illness.

This debate stems from President George W. Bush’s signing of a measure in January intended to prevent people with serious mental illness from buying guns.

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FOID is an acronym for Firearm Owners Identification. Residents of the state of Illinois are required to have an FOID card to possess or purchase firearms or ammunitio.

Kazmierczak, the gunman from the NIU shooting, had a state police-issued FOID, a firearms owners identification card, which is required in Illinois to own a gun and that such cards are rarely issued to those with recent mental health problems. However, the only questions pertaining to an individual who is mentally disabled are question 3 and 5 on the FOID application.

Because one would have to “provide detailed documentation” if they answer yes, wouldn’t it be easier to just say no? And why five years? Is it proven that five years after being hospitalized for a mental condition that you are cured of your mental illness? I thought the cure came from the medication. Why don’t they ask if one is currently being treated for a mental illness, wouldn’t that make more sense? Isn’t it wrong then to say that the FIOD is not given out to those who are mentally ill?

NIU Gunman–Mentally Ill

In recent news, Steven Kazmierczak, 27, had a history of mental illness and had been off his meds for weeks when he stepped out from behind a screen on the Northern Illinois Universities Cole lecture hall’s stage Thursday and opened fire on a geology class killing himself and five others. It is known that Kazmierczak spent more than a year at the Thresholds-Mary Hill House in the late 1990s. His parents placed him there after high school because he had become “unruly” at home.

The former Thresholds-Mary Hill House manager couldn’t remember any instances of him being violent.

“He never wanted to identify with being mentally ill,” she said. “That was part of the problem.”

According to USAToday.com, he had a short-lived stint as a prison guard that ended abruptly when he just didn’t show up for work one day and he was in the Army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend he’d gotten a psychological discharge.

UsaToday.com also states that Kazmierczak had a state police-issued FOID, a firearms owners identification card, which is required in Illinois to own a gun and that such cards are rarely issued to those with recent mental health problems. And since Kazmierczak’s stay in the mental health center was more than five years ago, it didn’t raise red flags.

Unlike Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho — a sullen misfit who could barely look anyone in the eye, much less carry on a conversation — Kazmierczak appeared to fit in just fine.

Ironically, in a post that remains on a Northern Web site, apparently a brief autobiography that he wrote in seeking the treasurer’s post of the Northern chapter of the Academic Criminal Justice Association, Kazmierczak said, “I’ve worked very hard as a student. … I feel that I’m committed to social justice.”

Although they do not disclose his mental illness, I find it ironic that just about every “killer” has a mental illness, or are mentally disturbed in some way like Ted Bundy. According to abolishdeathpenalty.org Ted Bundy’s psychotic episodes were because of his mental illness; he had no fear of punishment. The death penalty, in fact, attracted rather than repelled him from committing heinous acts. He may have gone to Florida to commit murders because he knew it was the place he was most likely to be sentenced to death. Bundy even refused a plea bargain that would have prevented him from being sentenced to death and appeared to thrive on the attention and publicity of the capital case. According to this site, the death penalty may have encouraged his conduct.

Another recent killing possibly due to mental illness was in L.A. where a gunman fatally shot a SWAT officer and three members of his own family on the 9th of February (one week ago). USAToday.com claims that he suffered from “significant mental health problems” and had a juvenile criminal record. Edwin Rivera, who was killed by a sniper as he attempted to flee the house hours later, first showed mental health problems when his mother died about a decade ago, Deputy Chief Gary Brennan said.

Are these people seriously mentally ill or are we just trying to find an excuse as to why a person would kill another. Could our search for an explanation for independent isolated acts of violence led us to assume a correlation of something that can not be disproven–mental illness. I think it’s time that we come to terms with the fact that somethings are incurable and inexplainable and leave it at that.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-17-niu-shooting_N.htm , http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-08-police-standoff_N.htm , http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23171567/, http://www.abolishdeathpenalty.org/TalkingPoints.htm

Mental Illness a contributer to Homelessness?

According to Food Bank of the Rockies dot org, approximately 22% of homeless people suffer from chronic mental illness where as only 11% are veterans and oddly enough, 20% have regular employment.

This site claims that the vast majority of homeless persons with a mental illness could achieve stability if the appropriate services were available.

A study of 27 U.S. cities found that in 2001, 37% of all requests for emergency shelter went unmet due to lack of resources – a 13% increase from the previous year. For families, the numbers are even worse: 52% of emergency shelter requests from families were denied, a 22% increase from last year. (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005).

And to make matters worse, the Food Bank of the Rockies also says that homeless children have four times the rate of developmental delays from children with homes, twice the number of learning disabilities, and have three times as many emotional and behavioral problems. (National Coalition for the Homeless).

So not only are the mentally ill becoming homeless but the homeless are breeding more mentally ill persons. It’s a vicious cycle that could be potentially avoided through two things;  first, better knowledge of the causes, effects, and preventions for developmental delays and mental illnesses by our own citizens; and two, appropriate services available at the time and place of need.