USA Today published an article yesterday titled The Cost of Not Caring. The article is divided into 4 sections. These are:
- A separate and unequal system--people with mental illness face legal discrimination
- Lost in darkness--many wait nearly a decade for treatment
- Working for change--advocates chip away at discriminatory policies
- Overcoming the shame--speaking up heals old wounds
The article states: Although most people with mental illness are not violent, the USA's dysfunctional, long-neglected mental health system is under a microscope because of mass shootings in which the perpetrators had serious psychiatric problems. In a series of stories in the coming months, USA TODAY will explore the human and financial costs that the country pays for not caring more about the nearly 10 million Americans with serious mental illness.
This was a second article in the series. The first article, published last month, can be found here, and the focus of that article was about how prisons and emergency rooms have become the new mental health facilities.
I'm looking forward to reading the series. It might be a good one to share with loved ones who are trying to understand mental health issues.