Deinstitutionalization of Treatment for the Mentally Ill Has Not Worked

• Published in: The Salt Lake tribune
• Main Author: E. FULLER TORREY and MARY T. ZDANOWICZ
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Salt Lake City, Utah The Salt Lake Tribune 18.07.1999
• ISSN: 0746-3502

The White House Conference on Mental Health identified stigma and discrimination as the most important barriers to treatment for the mentally ill. For the most severely ill, there are more significant barriers to treatment, such as laws that prevent treating individuals until they become dangerous. These laws and our failure to treat individuals with schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness are, ironically, the leading causes of stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses. A 1996 study published in the Journal of Community Psychology demonstrated that negative attitudes toward people with mental illnesses increased greatly after people read newspaper articles reporting violent crimes by the mentally ill. Henry J. Steadman, an influential public opinion researcher, wrote as far back as 1981: "Recent research data on contemporary populations of ex-mental patients supports these public fears (of dangerousness) to an extent rarely acknowledged by mental health professionals. ... It is {therefore} futile and inappropriate to badger the news and entertainment media with appeals to help destigmatize the mentally ill." Tipper Gore and the White House must tackle 30 years of failed deinstitutionalization policy if they hope to win the battle of mental illness stigma and solve the nation's mental illness crisis. Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Americans are eking out a pitiful existence on city streets, underground in subway tunnels or in jails and prisons because of the misguided efforts of civil rights advocates to keep the severely ill out of hospitals and out of treatment.