Imagine being unable to see a doctor whenever you are sick or struggling to get medicine to cure an illness or common cold. Due to the ineffectiveness of mental health programs in the United States patients usually do not receive the proper treatment they need for better health and sadly, these actions are a harsh reality for most. People with mental illnesses have a shorter life expectancy by twenty years as opposed to those who are healthy (Patel). This huge gap in life expectancy is cause by lack of treatment and availability to patients and is a massive issue which contributes to the amount of deaths each day, “There are 959 deaths every day related to mental illness” (Meyer). This statistic exemplifies that the National Mental Health Care System in the United States is failing its patients and is in need of change. There are almost 1,000 deaths each day due to mental illnesses, so change needs to take place immediately to better mentally ill patients and those involved. All factors in the Mental Health Programs such as practitioners, budget resources, facilities, and patients are being mistreated resulting in the downfall of its success.

Throughout history mental health care systems funded by the government have failed continuously. Federal mental health plans were born during Jack Kennedy’s presidential term, “by the time Kennedy took office on January 20, 1961, Felix et al. were ready to go forward with their national mental health plan” (Torrey 39). Jack Kennedy’s sister, Rosemary, was mentally ill and was forced by her father Joseph to receive a lobotomy (Torrey). Lobotomies were a dangerous surgery on the front lobe of the brain that were supposed to fix the mentally ill. During that time period there was a stigma surrounding the mentally ill, so Joseph Kennedy wanted to fix Rosemary and thought the perfect solution would be a lobotomy that would cure her sickness. It is said that Jack started these federal mental health plans to honor his sister after she suffered severe brain trauma from the lobotomy (Torrey).  After Jack Kennedy’s death, the power of these programs fell into the hands of the National Institute of Mental Health Officials (Torrey 61). These officials tried prevention methods of mental illness and experiments, but nothing seemed to work. The mentally ill began to be released from hospitals early and were not fully treated. This lack of structure and sad story of Jack Kennedy’s younger sister began the horrific start of national mental health programs. Those ineffective attempts of programs decades ago still influence the mentally ill population today. 

The lack of concrete programs then reflects onto the current situation of mental health programs now. Currently, jails are serving as insufficient facilities to treat mental illnesses. “Nationwide in America, more than three times as many mentally ill people are housed in prisons and jails as in hospitals” (Kristof). Most patients cannot afford the expensive prices of treatment, care, and medicines so they do not receive proper care. Mentally ill patients then end up in jails and have to be treated while serving sentencing time. Government defunding of mental health services contributes to the rise of increase incarcerated mentally ill and causes a lack of availability in treatment centers. “In the past three years, $4.35 billion for services has been cut from state budgets across the country” (Satlin). Budget cutting has a rippling effect, treatments receive less funding, the number of practitioners’ decreases, and private care becomes harder to obtain. The less practitioners are available, the more mentally ill do not receive treatment.  The facilities that are supposed to treat and house the patients but instead are failing them, and patients now are ending up in jail to receive treatment. An overwhelming amount of prisoners receive treatment in jails. Currently, “56 percent of state prisoners and 45 percent of federal prisoners have symptoms or a recent history of mental health issues” (Satlin) this shows that mental illness is becoming criminalized in our society. Substituting jails for mental health hospitals and treatment further exemplifies the flaws in the current national health care system.   

Sadly, nursing staff members are also being treated inadequately along with facilities which is contributing to the downfall of mental health care programs. Nurses frequently undergo violent attacks and merely have to continue their job without repercussions. Nursing staff has the highest ratio of attacks compared to other work fields (Branko, Lobnikar, Gabrovec 421). Nurses are neither qualified nor supposed to manage aggression, yet they are in charge of providing safety for aggressive patients (Branko, Lobnikar, Gabrovec 421). It is shocking to find that nurses are not trained to deal with aggression, yet struggle with it every day in the work place. Currently “violence directed towards health professionals is at the highest rate ever” (Branko, Lobnikar, Gabrovec 421). Nurses play a huge role in the outcome of a patient’s mentality, as a result of nurses being mistreated patients become affected along with their desired outcome for their mental health.

 Nurse practitioners are an important asset to helping a patient recover, “NPs are known to provide safe, cost-effective interventions and improved outcomes for patients who are undeserved by mainstream health services” (Morse, Procter 2703). Nurse practitioners act as leaders by “establishing links between allied health providers, patients, patient advocacy groups, families and carers to develop a culture of enhancing collaborative care and mental health literacy” (Morse, Procter 2708). The people who influence patients the most are severely mistreated reflecting the ineffective current programs for mental health in the United States. These nurses are vital to the countless Americans affected with mental illnesses. Without nurse practitioners, many men, women, and children would go without proper mental health care treatment and would thus suffer the potentially deadly consequences.

Similarly, with the mistreatment of nurses, patients are also being neglected in this broken system. Due to the lack of availability of bed and practitioners for treatment, many patients are receiving short-term help which does not fully fix symptoms for later in the future. For the patients that do end up in hospitals for help, the help is not as effective as anticipated. Dominic Sisti, a professor of medical ethics states, “In hospitals, severely mentally ill patients languish for months in acute care units, which are designed to stabilize patients, not to help their long-term recovery.” In this current mental health care system patients cannot even receive proper care regardless of which treatment they seek. Hospitals are failing their patients, and the system as a whole is failing its patients along with nurses. If patients are only receiving short-term treatment then, they are being failed. Short-term treatment will only allow patients to be cured briefly. Short-term treatment will lead to patients having reoccurring problems in the future because they were only receiving immediate treatment. Recovery includes getting better and receiving long-term mental health improvements, which currently is not a reality for most patients.

Furthermore, within patient mistreatment includes lack of available space. The lack of beds available to patients for care exemplifies how hard it is for patients to receive care. For every 3,000 Americans there is only one bed available (Kristof). Lack of space has always been an issue over the past numerous decades, “In 1955 there were 340 public psychiatric beds in the US per 10,000 population” (Torrey 117). Patients end up in jails to receive treatment due to lack of availability elsewhere and these innocent patients are more likely to be preyed upon or injured in a fight while incarcerated (Kristof). As if it is not bad enough mentally ill patient cannot receive proper treatment, they are also at risk of getting injured. These facilities are dangerous for patients and other inmates. India, a 42-year-old inmate who suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, was interviewed by the New York Times and said: “she tried various times to get psychiatric care but found it almost impossible, so she self-medicates when on the outside with heroin” (Kristof). India’s story is an accurate representation of how ineffective current mental health programs are; she could not receive treatment so she turned to drugs and jail. If the current situation is not fixed, hopeless innocent people looking for psychiatric help are going to continuously be throw into jail. 

In addition to patients and nurses being mistreated, society as a whole is affected by this issue along with the mentally ill in need of improved mental health care systems. Vikram Patel, a mental health care advocate, speaks for an audience on TED.com about how there is a massive difference between care for mental illnesses than physical medical illnesses. “When you put all the mental illnesses together they account for roughly 15% of the total global burden of disease” (Patel). Roughly, 400-500 million people on earth are affected by mental illnesses (Patel), this statistic shows how common mental illnesses are and that mental illness affects us all whether it’s personally or through peers, family, or friends. Affected individuals are not receiving care, “In Europe roughly 50% of individuals are not receiving treatment” (Patel). It is shocking to know that along with here in the United States, globally mentally ill patients are not receiving help and treatment and feel ashamed. Communities begin to become affected negatively when the mentally ill are living on the streets unable to afford treatment and when innocent sick people are placed into jails. This impacts not all the mentally ill community but everyone. If the current mental health care crisis is not fixed communities globally, societies, and especially the mentally ill will be negatively affected. 

 So far, little has been done to fix the issues at hand and overall nationally little is being done to fix these issues. Currently, the government is weighing the outcomes of possibly passing a new bill. The new bill would permit state Medicaid managed-care programs that would cover short stays in psychiatric hospitals (Meyer). This would relieve some of the financial pressure off of patients and promote wellness. Along with Medicaid managed-care programs, this bill will permit Medicaid billing of health (Meyer) which will also relieve patients of financial pressure. The largest issue at hand is that most patients cannot afford treatment or medicine so, this would greatly impact patients and push national mental health care in the right direction. The bill will also offer grants to enhance crisis-response services, provide specialized training to law enforcement, corrections officers, and first responders (Meyer). Educating citizens such as medical responders and police will bring light onto the current mental health issues at hand. Police officers will be more understanding and knowledgeable about mental illnesses.  Specialized training would be beneficial because law enforcements would know how to handle crisis’s along with patient’s actions. Although the possibility of a new bill is good news, there is a possibility legislation may not pass it. Further illustrating that so far, there is not enough being done to reverse the devastation the broken system has caused on patients, practitioners, communities, and facilities. 

For example, in 2015 Tim Murphy (R.,Pa.) and (D.,Tex.). Murphy introduced the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. This act would address federal privacy laws and shortages of psychiatric beds (Satel and Torrey). The bill was never passed which reflects how currently, not enough is being done to improve the issues with the mental health care system. Before the bill was blocked, “Representative Murphy cited report’s key findings… 40,000 suicides last year; 10 million individuals with serious mental illness; 200,000 mentally ill who are homeless; and 1.2 million with mental illness in jails and prisons” (Satel and Torrey). These shocking statistics were still not enough to encourage change. If legislation is not passing bills sadly, change will never happen. 

Ultimately, there needs to be a solution to fix this mental health crisis. There are multiple solutions that will help fix and repair these massively failing programs. First, people need to become educated on the topic of mental illnesses. “Many Americans still believe that serious mental illnesses are psychological, not biological, in origin” (Torrey 141). This proves how unaware the public is about the science behind mental illnesses. In today’s society, there is a current social stigma surrounding mental illnesses. Education will allow people to understand the science behind mental illness which will eliminate the stigma. If people never become educated, change will never happen. Society needs to understand the detrimental impacts of mental illness to promote change for the better. Once people begin to feel comfortable seeking help publicly, mentally ill patients will gain support and comfort from surrounding peers. Also, more educated individuals will know when to seek help if they are experiencing symptoms or know of someone else who is. Mental illnesses are unyielding and more education on the topic will bring light upon the severity. 

Secondly, further laws including the bill mentioned previously, need to be passed in order to promote patient and practitioner safety. Patients currently are not prioritized by their illnesses, but for the safety of other staff members and law enforcement, they should be. “Confidentiality laws prohibit the disclosure of psychiatric information” (Torrey 160). This prohibition of information puts law officials in a difficult position and unaware of the potential threats a patient or inmate possess. Safety of nurses, patients, and other staff members is crucial to patients receiving positive treatments. The well-being of everyone involved is worth releasing patient’s diagnosis with the nurses and supervisors as long as it remains confidential. 

Thirdly, another solution that would benefit and fix the mental health care programs would be for the Federal Government to overall express the same ideas and laws towards mental health. “In the late 1980’s at the NIMH, research programs were attempting to find the cause of serious mental illnesses” (Torrey 143), this attempt to find cures and causes seems beneficial, but the Federal Government contradicted themselves. Another NIHM program, the Protection and Advocacy program, held seminars and claimed that mental illnesses were non-existent (Torrey). If the government has programs that contradict one another, citizens will never have a clear idea as to what mental illness really is and how it can be solved. If the Federal Government can put programs in place that support one another and educate people on the severity of mental illnesses progress will be made. 

To conclude, the current mental health care system in the United States is in need of immediate change. Nurses, patients, and facilities are being mistreated. There is a lack of available space for patients resulting in mentally ill patients not receiving treatments. Not receiving treatment has numerous damaging effects such as patient’s mental health worsening, risk of death, and risk of incarceration. Without a solution to this madness, innocent sick people will continue to turn to jails to look for treatments. Communities will further be negatively impacted by to mentally ill without treatment. This issue at hand affects not only the sick but everyone else as well. Unfortunately, little is being done so far by the government except for the possibility of a new bill getting passed. Change needs to happen now, the mentally ill need treatments and support, not any more suffering. 
