[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARGE ROUKEMA

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 13, 1998

  Mrs. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take this time (with the 
gentlelady from Ohio, Ms. Kaptur) to illuminate what needs to be done 
to address the silent medical crisis in America of mental illness.
  Mental illness is not a character flaw, but a tangible treatable 
health problem as real as hypertension or heart disease or tuberculosis 
or the many forms of cancer.
  The good news: advances of our medical system have provided 
scientific breakthroughs that make appropriate mental health care as 
effective as insulin for a diabetic.
  While we do have the ability to treat mental illness, we have a 
tremendous amount of work to do in the critical area of public 
understanding of mental illnesses--leading to appropriate treatment.
  Unfortunately, America is witnessing more violence every day 
resulting from untreated mental illness and a failed policy of 
deinstitutionalization without any proper community follow-up.
  All too often we hear of situations where an individual with a mental 
disorder has not received adequate treatment and has reacted violently 
and endangered him--or herself or, tragically, taken the life of 
another. Last year, alone, over 1,000 homicides were directly 
attributable to improperly treated mental illnesses.
  This crisis is not just a crisis for adults. This crisis also affects 
our children.
  The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry estimates that 
12 million American children have a mental illness at any one time, but 
fewer than one in five is identified as needing treatment. Early 
diagnosis, follow-up treatment, and prevention and intervention 
programs can help children and adolescents at risk for violent 
incidents.
  My colleagues, these are the dimensions of this silent crisis. But we 
are not powerless. We can do something.
  I, along with Representative Kaptur, have introduced a sense of the 
House resolution to establish a mental illness working group to probe 
the gaping holes in the network of services designed to identify, 
assist, and treat those people with mental illness.
  While treatment of the mentally ill is primarily a function of the 
separate states, there does exist significant sharing of costs and some 
joint federal/state responsibilities in such areas as reciprocity 
between states, the relationship of SSI and Medicaid to mental illness 
and the designation of Institutions of Mental Diseases.
  Other key federal components that require oversight and analysis are 
the effectiveness of mental health block grants and the federal prison 
costs attributed to mental illness.
  Our proposed mental illness working group would be charged with 
gathering information about the nature of the problem, current state 
and federal policy gaps as well as reviewing the need for reciprocity 
and how states and communities failed to provide follow-up treatments 
to these individuals.
  This will involve Members of the various Committees that have 
jurisdiction over federal issues involving the mentally ill, including 
Ways and Means, Judiciary, Commerce, Veterans Affairs, Appropriation, 
Banking and the Education and the Workforce Committee. They are 
involved in issues ranging from discrimination in health care coverage 
to public housing.
  We must take responsible action and seize this opportunity to ensure 
that something beneficial results from recent tragedies, such as that 
which occurred here on Capitol Hill.
  I hope you will join us in this effort.

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