PUBLIC INFORMATION AND EDUCATION
Keeping you informed of events, news and resources concerning Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

MENTAL ILLNESS: TREATMENT WORKS

Mental Illness Awareness Week - October 6-12, 2003

NASHVILLE – During Mental Illness Awareness Week, the state’s leading mental health official encourages Tennesseans to learn more about mental health and treatment of mental illness.

“One in every five Tennesseans will have a diagnosable disorder during their lifetime so we all must know much more about mental health and illness because it touches each of us very personally,” said Virginia Trotter Betts, commissioner of the department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. “Mental illnesses are real illnesses for which science and health care have real solutions. When treated, most mental illnesses do not cause a permanent disability and many people never have a recurrence.”

Betts says the urgency of mental health education is emphasized by a recent Youth Risk Survey which reported that teenagers in Tennessee say they are experiencing more depression and as a result, are thinking more about mental illnesses’ terminal condition: suicide.

“We must act now and together to ensure that Tennessee’s young people have an adequate system to help them identify their symptoms, acknowledge that help is needed, know where it is available, and then get treatment,” Betts said.

Betts also notes that violence is not characteristic of people with mental illnesses. A 1999 U.S. Surgeon General’s report found that the greatest risk of violence from those with mental illness is from people who are not in treatment, are noncompliant with their medication, or those who also have a substance abuse disorder. Such violence is usually not random, but is likely to be focused on family or close associates.

To learn more, including where to call in a crisis, where to get mental health services in Tennessee, where you can volunteer to help others in your community, and a listing of events for Mental Illness Awareness Week, visit the department’s website www.state.tn.us/mental.