Mental illness expert speaks at Iowa Wesleyn College

March 28--The numbers are staggering.

One in four adults, or 57.7 million, will experience mental illness in the U.S., according to recent studies, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Iowa Nancy Hale said.

"The tsunami has already hit," Hale said, referring to the increasing number of adults with mental illness who overwhelm the unprepared and the uninformed family members, schools, federal, state and local government agencies.

Hale predicts children with mental illness is "the next tsunami."

Hale spoke at Iowa Wesleyan College on Thursday, with many students from the nursing school in attendance. Hale said there is a shortage of psychiatric nurse practitioners, especially in Iowa, and encouraged them to enter the field.

Addressing the problems of the mentally ill requires acknowledging prisons and jails house and concentrate their numbers.

The percentage of mentally ill in jails is two to four times higher than in the general population, according to a 2006 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. More than half of all jail and prison inmates are mentally ill, according to the study.

In 2006, BJS estimated that among adult incarcerations, more than 700,000 in state prisons, about 80,000 in federal prisons and about 480,000 in local jails were mentally ill. The study noted local jails bear the greatest burden because they have a higher percentage of mentally ill among their populations.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart testified before a U.S. Congressional subcommittee looking into mental health on Wednesday, which was reported by Chicago'sCBS news station.

Dart claims the Cook County Jail is the country's biggest mental health facility, housing about 3,000 mentally ill prisoners.

"The unfortunate undeniable conclusion is that, because of the dramatic and sustained cuts in mental health funding, we have criminalized mental illness in this county and county jails and state prison facilities are where the majority of the mental health care and treatment is administered," Dart said.

Hale agreed prisons and jails have become the major source of mental health care "because there is nowhere else for them to go."

"You want to know what mental health care looks like in the northwestern part of the state? A sheriff picks you up because you've committed a crime," Hale said.

"These are good people, but they don't want to be the ones who treat mental illness," Hale said.

She estimates 60 to 70 percent of the people in prisons and jails are mentally ill.

She said it is vastly under-reported.

For example, "They don't bother to diagnose all the personality disorders because they are so prevalent," Hale said.

NAMI is mounting a grass-roots effort to combat the mental-illness tsunami. Hale said NAMI, a not-for-profit organization, "Trains people within communities," who, in turn, train others.

The resulting groundswell of empathetic people, now armed with knowledge, can identify mental illness and intervene by swaying their federal and state legislators and county board of supervisors as well as getting people into treatment, Hale said, throughout her presentation.

Hale said she personally spends a lot of her time training those who are in the trenches but who have little training to deal with mental illness. She trains teachers, police, sheriff's and corrections departments, who tell her they desperately need it.

Hale emphasized that once identified and treated, the prognosis is very good; "70 to 90 percent will have symptom relief with proper care," Hale said.

But getting treated is a problem.

Treatment by a psychiatrist and not a psychologist is absolutely necessary, Hale said. A psychiatrist has a medical degree and can understand the "very complex" drugs. Some are nearly miraculous in their ability to return a mentally ill patient to normalcy, Hale said.

Iowa is in very short supply, 47th among the 50 states, Hale said, with four psychiatrists per 9,000 mentally ill. She estimates 31,000 people who need medication in the state go without.

To meet the shortage, NAMI advocates "telemedicine," which puts clients in front of psychiatrists via telecommunications or a "secure Skype (free voice-over-internet-service) line," Hale said.

NAMI also is offering trainings over Skype, she said.

Iowa also is in very short supply of "acute care beds," for those ill enough to be hospitalized, Hale said. The state has 120 acute care beds, and there are about 10 locally, Hale said.

NAMI has been blocked in getting the state to address critical care for the mentally ill, she said.

"We'll put acute care beds on the DHS (Department of Human Services) agenda, and they will step right over it," she said.

"It all comes down to money," Hale said. "The biggest problem in Iowa is not doing the right thing."

And money could be redirected, resulting in savings and prevention of crises. Hale said the average cost for housing someone in jail or prison is $31,000 a year.

"You can give a lot of treatment for $31,000," she said.

There is an exception.

"Dave Heaton always does the right thing," Hale said.

State Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant, is chairman of the Health and Services Appropriations committee. His district includes all of Henry County and the northern half of Lee County.

"He was at the forefront of the state's mental health care redesign," Hale said, referring to the regionalization of mental health care.

"The legislation is crucial because it set and requires basic services not all counties provided in the past," she said.

Hale said mental illness is increasing in the U.S., which she partially attributes to marijuana.

"When the research is done, studies will show marijuana is a bad drug," she said.

Her experience shows it induces paranoia and anxiety disorder that can become "full-blown psychosis" in persistent users who are genetically predisposed to marijuana's ill effects.

She said recent research attributes the increase in autism in the last 20 years to acetaminophen (Tylenol).

Hale also attributes the increase in mental illness to "the prevalence of street drugs."

For more information on NAMI Iowa and its support groups and educational programs, call (515) 254-0417 or (800) 417-0417 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or visit www.namiiowa.com.

___

(c)2014 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa)

Visit The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) at www.thehawkeye.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services