I posted a few days ago in LinkedIn that if the US didn't start treating our mentally ill as well as we treat our physically ill, we would just see more and more reports about deaths like Robin Williams. Then someone today quoted a line from John Pinette, and I realized I was seriously wrong.
Public health officials will tell you that only 1 in 10 Americans can handle their own health well (are proficient at health literacy skills) and only 1 in 33 are able to handle their mental health. I will say that mental health care across the country did make some giant leaps forward with the Affordable Care Act, but we have now probably reached the point were they are both handled the same.
Follow my logic here for a minute. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the US. What do we tell smokers? Just stop smoking. Here's a patch. Why can't you quit. What do we tell the depressed like Robin Williams? Cheer up. It's all in your head. Here's a pill. Obesity is the number two cause of death in the US with malnutrition being the leading cause worldwide. What do we tell the obese, like John Pinette? Stop eating. Move more. Sorry there isn't a pill for that.
Want more objective facts (thanks CDC). 1 in 4 Americans will suffer with a mental illness in their lifetime. 1in 3 Americans are obese (not just overweight), with almost 1/2 of all Hispanic Americans being obese. Approximately 1 in 5 adult Americans smoke tobacco. 1 in 10 Americans will struggle with depression in the lifetime. 1 in every 4 deaths in the US is related to cancer. The only disease that kills more Americans is heart disease.
Our medical community has great solutions to physical health problems.... eat a well balanced diet, exercise daily, see your doctor for screening tests, with medications and surgery often correcting what does go wrong. Yet physical health problems are the number one and two causes of death. We have less interventions for mental health problems (which cause fewer deaths), but are the leading cause of disability in both the US and Canada. We need to figure out how to improve care and get people to live healthier lives in both realms of health.
So as you can see, we don't really treat our mentally ill any worse than our physically ill. The problem is that we really aren't doing a good job of treating either. And that can be born out in the tragic deaths this year of these two comedians. Robin and John had plenty of money and access to the best health care in the world and still died way too early. We need to be better at teaching people how to handle their health in general..... physically and mentally. Socially and spiritually as well. But that's a topic for another blog.
