The U.S. mental health system has huge gaps that prevent millions of people with psychological problems, including children and teens, from receiving effective treatment that could prevent tragic consequences, experts told U.S. lawmakers on Thursday.
Just over a month after the shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut, experts told a Senate hearing that three-quarters of mental illnesses emerge by age 24, but fewer than one in five youths with diagnosable problems receive treatment that could avoid later problems including violence and suicide.
Overall, experts said as many of 45 million Americans experience mental illnesses such as depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and drug abuse each year. But only 38 percent get treatment.
via U.S. mental health experts urge focus on early treatment | Reuters.
I am concerned that in Australia we have taken one step forward and two steps back. We are seeing a concerning trend to wind-back programs designed to assist people with treatment support in favour of balancing the budget.
While the costs of attending to mental health are enormous, the costs of leaving it untreated are often immeasurable in the short term economics of government budgets.
Medicare funding for Psychological care should be expanded to better include counsellors to reduce overall costs and extensions for funding beyond 10 sessions per calendar year need to be reinstated. The state of our collective mental health is societies signal of prosperity rather than GDP.