Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
How do I find treatment, including affordable treatment?
How do I find a support group in my community?
How can I get more information about medications?
How can I get help paying for my prescriptions?
How do I find inpatient or residential treatment?
How can I find out about clinical trials?
What can I do if I’m dissatisfied with my mental health therapy services/treatment?
Where can I read “Frequently Asked Questions” about the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit?
What is good Mental Health?
Mental health is how a person thinks, feels, and acts when faced with life's situations and problems. Mental health can be considered a continuum between feeling healthy and ill. For most individuals, good mental health can be maintained through proper diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management. Many people find that at some point in their lives, therapy and/or medication is needed to maintain mental health.
How common is mental illness?
Each year approximately 54 Million Americans (1 in 5 people) experience mental illness. Like most other illnesses, mental illness is minor for some and debilitating for others. Mental illness may be a short-term illness or become chronic. The severity and length of illness may depend on the type of disorder, treatment available to the individual, and how well the chemistry of the individual responds to treatment.
Twenty percent of children 9 to 17 years old experience a mental or addictive disorder each year (approximately 4 children in a classroom of 20)! It has been estimated that each year 11% of children have significant social/emotional impairment due to a mental or addictive disorder.
What causes mental illness?
An individual may be at risk for mental illness for a variety of reasons. An individual may be genetically predisposed or chemically imbalanced, may have had prenatal exposure to an illness or other problem, or may be experiencing stress, poverty, or other difficulties; all of these factors can increase a person's chance for developing a mental illness.
Can a person with mental illness still be productive?
Many persons with mental illness lead very productive lives! Individuals who have experienced mental illness include Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Vincent Van Gogh, Jackson Pollack, Sylvia Path, Ray Davies, Charlie Parker, and Charles Mingus.
In the last few years, the stigma and shame around having a mental illness has been reduced by courageous celebrities who have shared their stories and struggle with recovery from mental illness. These people include Tipper Gore, Brooke Shields, Terry Bradshaw, Delta Burke, Robin Williams, Ted Turner, Carrie Fisher, Kathy Cronkite, Patty Duke, Mark Wahlberg and Willard Scott.
No less courageous are the staff, volunteers, members and friends of the Mental Health Association of the Heartland who dedicate time and support to helping others to understanding and recovery, and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who live with those illnesses every day.
Once a person becomes mentally ill, will they recover?
Therapy and medications have been found to be very successful. Eighty percent of persons with bipolar disorder and 90% of persons with depression can be treated effectively. This rate is better than the rate of recovery from a triple bypass surgery! Sadly up to 70% of children and adults experiencing mental illness do not get the treatment they need.
Why don't people who have mental illness get treatment?
There are a number of answers to this question. Stigma and shame around having a mental illness prevent many people from seeking help. Unfair limitations of insurance benefits (higher deductibles and co-pays, fewer covered visits) keep others from getting help.
Additionally, spending for mental health services is very low. Despite statistics that show that untreated mental illness is the greatest cause of disability world wide 66% of countries surveyed by the World Health Organzation devote less than 1% of their budget to the treatment of mental illness!
For More Information:
If you or someone you know is in crisis now, seek help immediately. Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach a 24 hour crisis center or dial 911 for
Above information provided by the Mental Health America of the Heartland. You can reach us at (913) 281-2221 or E-mail us at: info@mhah.org.