What is the Surgeon General's report on mental health?
Surgeon General Issues 'Landmark' Report on Mental Health. Dec. 13, 1999 (Washington) -- The U.S. Surgeon General's first-ever report on the nation's mental health urges those who need help to seek treatment, but the 500-page document also warns that much needs to be done to guarantee that insurance will cover the therapies that are available.
Can integrating substance use disorder treatment into mainstream health care improve quality?
Individuals with substance use disorders at all levels of severity can benefit from treatment, and research shows that integrating substance use disorder treatment into mainstream health care can improve the quality of treatment services.
Will the report raise awareness of mental health issues?
The American Psychiatric Association lauded the report as an effort that could raise awareness of mental health issues, much as the 1964 Surgeon General's report increased understanding of the perils of smoking.
Do we need treatment for co-occurring physical and mental illnesses?
However, most existing substance use disorder treatment programs lack the needed training, personnel, and infrastructure to provide treatment for co-occurring physical and mental illnesses.
How is mental health service fragmented?
The mental health service system is highly fragmented. Many who seek treatment are bewildered by the maze of paths into treatment; others in need of care are stymied by a lack of information about where to seek effective and affordable services. In recent years, some progress has been made in coordinating services for those with severe mental illness, but more can be accomplished. Public and private agencies have an obligation to facilitate entry into treatment. There are multiple “portals of entry” to mental health care and treatment, including a range of community and faith-based organizations. Primary health care could be an important portal of entry for children and adults of all ages with mental disorders. The schools and child welfare system are the initial points of contact for most children and adolescents, and can be useful sources of first-line assessment and referral, provided that expertise is available. The juvenile justice system represents another pathway, although many overburdened facilities tend to lack the staff required to deal with the magnitude of the mental health problems encountered. Of equal concern are the adult criminal justice and corrections systems, which encounter substantial numbers of detainees with mental illness (Ditton, 1999). Individuals with mental disorders often are neglected or victimized in these institutions.
What is the Surgeon General's report?
The Surgeon General’s report itself is expected to stimulate the demand for effective treatment for needed mental health care. Americans are often unaware of the choices they have for effective mental health treatments. In fact, as the preceding chapters demonstrate, there exists a constellation of treatments for most mental disorders. Treatments fall mainly under several broad categories—counseling, psychotherapy, medication therapy, rehabilitation—yet within each category are many more choices.
How does stigma affect mental health?
The stigma that envelops mental illness deters people from seeking treatment. Stigma assumes many forms, both subtle and overt. It appears as prejudice and discrimination, fear, distrust, and stereotyping. It prompts many people to avoid working, socializing, and living with people who have a mental disorder. Stigma impedes people from seeking help for fear that the confidentiality of their diagnosis or treatment will be breached. It gives insurers—in the public sector as well as the private—tacit permission to restrict coverage for mental health services in ways that would not be tolerated for other illnesses. Chapter 1 reviewed the influence of stigma historically in separating mental health from the mainstream of health and its role in thwarting access to appropriate treatment. Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others.
What is the purpose of mental health?
Mental health—the successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity ; from early childhood until late life, mental health is the springboard of thinking and communication skills, learning, emotional growth, resilience, and self-esteem.
Why do people not seek mental health care?
Financial obstacles discourage people from seeking treatment and from staying in treatment. Repeated surveys have shown that concerns about the cost of care are among the foremost reasons why people do not seek care (Sussman et al., 1987; Sturm & Sherbourne, 1999). As documented in Chapter 6 of this report, there is an enormous disparity in insurance coverage for mental disorders in contrast to other illnesses. Mental health coverage often is arbitrarily restricted. Individuals and families consequently are forced to draw on relatively—and substantially—more of their own resources to pay for mental health treatment than they pay for other types of health care. This inequity is a deterrent to treatment and needs to be redressed.
What is the service system?
The service system as a whole, as opposed to treatment services considered in isolation, dictates the outcome of treatment (Goldman, 1998). The fundamental components of effective service delivery include integrated community-based services, continuity of providers and treatments, family support services (including psychoeducation), and culturally sensitive services. Effective service delivery for individuals with the most severe conditions also requires supported housing and supported employment. For adults and children with less severe conditions, primary health care, the schools, and other human services must be prepared to assess and, at times, to treat individuals who come seeking help. All services for those with a mental disorder should be consumer oriented and focused on promoting recovery. That is, the goal of services must not be limited to symptom reduction but should strive for restoration of a meaningful and productive life.
What is the Surgeon General's publication?
Surgeon General publications are raising the visibility of the “silent epidemic” of oral diseases that affect our most vulnerable citizens. Read how policymakers, community leaders, and health professionals are taking action to prevent and treat oral diseases.
What are the issues that have heightened America's awareness and focused action on critical public health issues?
Reports and other publications on HIV/AIDS, mental health, substance use disorders, nutrition, and violence —to name but a few—have heightened America's awareness and focused action on critical public health issues, and continue to generate major public health initiatives.
What is the Office of the Surgeon General calling on Americans to do?
The Office of the Surgeon General has called on all Americans to balance healthful eating with regular physical activity. Explore publications on how we can become a nation that is both healthy and fit.
Is misinformation a threat to health?
Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health . It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Learn about how we can confront health misinformation together and build a healthy information environment.
What are the goals of substance use disorder treatment?
The goals of substance use disorder treatment are very similar to the treatment goals for other chronic illnesses: to eliminate or reduce the primary symptoms (substance use), improve general health and function, and increase the motivation and skills of patients and their families to manage threats of relapse.
How does substance use disorder treatment improve health?
Individuals with substance use disorders at all levels of severity can benefit from treatment, and research shows that integrating substance use disorder treatment into mainstream health care can improve the quality of treatment services.
What is health care reform?
Health care reform and parity laws are providing significant opportunities and incentives to address substance misuse and related disorders more effectively in diverse health care settings. At the same time, many states are making changes to drug policies, ranging from mandating use of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) ...
What is a substance use disorder?
Substance use disorders are medical illnesses that develop in some individuals who misuse substances —more than 20 million individuals in 2015. 9 These disorders involve impaired control over substance use that results from disruption of specific brain circuits.
What is the opioid epidemic?
A national opioid overdose epidemic has captured the attention of the public as well as federal, state, local, and tribal leaders across the country. Ongoing efforts to reform health care and criminal justice systems are creating new opportunities to increase access to prevention and treatment services. Health care reform and parity laws are ...
How effective are policies and environmental strategies in reducing alcohol-related problems?
Additionally, research has demonstrated that policies and environmental strategies are highly effective in reducing alcohol-related problems by focusing on the social, political, and economic contexts in which these problems occur.
When did addiction treatment start?
Historically, however, only individuals with the most severe substance use disorders have received treatment, and only in independent “addiction treatment programs” that were originally designed in the early 1960s to treat addictions as personality or character disorders.