Dusty Johnson: “I take this opportunity to note the importance of the week of October 3-9, 2004, which is National Mental Health Week.…”

“I take this opportunity to note the importance of the week of October 3-9, 2004, which is National Mental Health Week. This annual event was created in the hopes that Americans would recognize and honor the challenge encountered by the mentally ill and their loved ones. This year, the theme of the National Mental Health Week is ``unity through disparities''. Mental illnesses affect 22.1 percent of Americans over the age of 18. According to a National Institute of Mental Health 2001 survey, approximately 44.3 million Americans suffer from some form of mental illness. Conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive compulsive disorder, together are ranked fourth of the ten leading causes of disabilities in the United States. Such statistics clearly indicate that we cannot afford to ignore the needs of those living with a mental illness. The impact of mental illnesses on the productivity of the United States is greatly underestimated. The Global Burden of Disease study, published by the National Institute of Mental Health, exposed that mental illness, including suicide, accounts for 15 percent of the burden of disease in established market economies. This study reveals that mental illness places a larger burden on the productivity of the United States than all cancers combined. Such findings reemphasize that more attention and resources need to be directed towards supporting the mentally ill.”