[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S.J. Res. 61 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.J.Res. 61
                       One Hundred Third Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
  the fifth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-three


                            Joint Resolution

  
 
  To designate the week of October 3, 1993, through October 9, 1993, as 
``Mental

                        Illness Awareness Week''.

Whereas mental illness is a problem of grave concern and consequence in 
  the United States and it is widely, but unnecessarily, feared and 
  misunderstood;
Whereas on an annual basis 40,000,000 adults in the United States suffer 
  from clearly diagnosable mental disorders, including mental illness, 
  alcohol abuse, and drug abuse, which create significant disabilities 
  with respect to employment, school attendance, and independent living;
Whereas more than 11,200,000 United States citizens are diagnosed with 
  schizophrenia, manic depressive disorder, and major depression, and 
  these individuals are often disabled for long periods of time;
Whereas 33 percent of homeless persons suffer serious, chronic forms of 
  mental illness;
Whereas mental illness, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse affect almost 22 
  percent of adults in the United States in any 1-year period;
Whereas mental illness interferes with the development and maturation of 
  at least 12,000,000 of our children;
Whereas a majority of the 30,000 American citizens who commit suicide 
  each year suffer from a mental or an addictive disorder;
Whereas our growing population of elderly persons faces many obstacles 
  to care for mental disorders;
Whereas 20 to 25 percent of persons with AIDS will develop AIDS-related 
  cognitive dysfunction and as many as two-thirds of persons with AIDS 
  will show neuropsychiatric symptoms before they die;
Whereas mental illness, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse result in 
  staggering costs to society, estimated to be in excess of $273,000,000 
  each year in direct treatment and support and indirect costs to 
  society, including lost productivity;
Whereas the Federal research budget committed to the National Institute 
  of Mental Health, the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol 
  Abuse, and the National Institute of Drug Abuse represents only about 
  1 percent of the direct treatment and support costs of caring for 
  persons with mental disorders, alcohol addiction, and drug addiction;
Whereas mental illnesses are increasingly treatable disorders with 
  excellent prospects for amelioration when properly recognized;
Whereas persons with mental illness and their families have begun to 
  join self-help groups seeking to combat the unfair stigma of mental 
  illness, to support greater national investment in research, and to 
  advocate an adequate continuum of care from hospital to community;
Whereas in recent years there have been unprecedented major research 
  developments bringing new methods and technology to the sophisticated 
  and objective study of the functioning of the brain and its linkages 
  to both normal and abnormal behavior;
Whereas research in recent decades has led to a wide array of new and 
  more effective modalities of treatment (somatic, psychosocial, and 
  service delivery) for some of the most incapacitating forms of mental 
  illness, including schizophrenia, major affective disorders, phobias, 
  and phobic disorders;
Whereas appropriate treatment of mental illness has been demonstrated to 
  be cost-effective in terms of restored productivity, reduced use of 
  other health services, and lessened social dependence; and
Whereas recent and unparalleled growth in scientific knowledge about 
  mental illness has generated the current emergence of a new threshold 
  of opportunity for future research advances and fruitful application 
  to specific clinical problems: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the week of October 3, 
1993, through October 9, 1993, is designated as ``Mental Illness 
Awareness Week''. The President is authorized and requested to issue a 
proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe 
such week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.







                                Speaker of the House of Representatives.







                             Vice President of the United States and    
                                                President of the Senate.