Our Health Policy Matters

We have made some big mental health policy mistakes in my lifetime.  And my son Tim is among the millions of our sons and daughters who have paid for them. This is because he happens to be among the 6% of sons and daughters with serious mental illness. We fail to see mental illnesses as often preventable and always treatable diseases.  And although half of us will be diagnosed with one during our lifetime and mental illnesses cost as much to treat as cancers, we more readily send people with mental illness to jails and prisons than we do to hospitals and health centers.  Meanwhile, we underfund mental health care, special education, and social services systems. I explain what this has meant for my son in an essay just published by Health Affairs , the nation’s leading health policy journal.  How I Helped Create a Flawed Mental Health System That’s Failed Millions – And My Son covers over twenty years of Tim’s life in Connecticut, Texas, and Calif...

We have made some big mental health policy mistakes in my lifetime.  And my son Tim is among the millions of our sons and daughters who have paid for them. This is because he happens to be among the 6% of sons and daughters with serious mental illness. We fail to see mental illnesses as often preventable and always treatable diseases.  And although half of us will be diagnosed with one during our lifetime and mental illnesses cost as much to treat as cancers, we more readily send people with mental illness to jails and prisons than we do to hospitals and health centers.  Meanwhile, we underfund mental health care, special education, and social services systems. I explain what this has meant for my son in an essay just published by Health Affairs , the nation’s leading health policy journal.  How I Helped Create a Flawed Mental Health System That’s Failed Millions – And My Son covers over twenty years of Tim’s life in Connecticut, Texas, and Calif...