SLO County needs more mental health services

Murph was the kid everyone loved. His freckled face always smiling, his gray eyes always glimmering and his laugh always like a ribbon of pure joy. He was fun and games, good in school, a natural artist and, by our last year in high school, destined as most likely to succeed. Then in his second year away at college, he had a breakdown.

None of us knew then what had happened, only that we were getting his calls from pay phones all around the country. Murph was in Nashville, Shreveport, Oklahoma City — his silly, wonderful laugh the only answer he provided when asked, “Murph, what the heck are you doing?”

This was in the ’80s, which seems so long ago now. Mental illness was not a concept we discussed much, even though it affected so many of our families. But in the era of mullets and parachute pants and Ronald Reagan, there was still a distressingly strong stigma surrounding mental illness. So Murph had simply cracked under the pressure, flipped-out, needed a break. It took years before we actually admitted that Murph was ill, and even then it was said with chagrin, as if our friend had failed his potential.

I am reminded of this often. Murph’s struggles were so severe that eventually we fell out of touch as he fell out of life. When I speak to people about their experiences with children who’ve adjusted well to managing their illnesses, I am haunted by thoughts of him. And when I talk to friends and family about their own bouts with depression and other ailments, I think of what might have been different had he received the treatment and care he needed.

By now, thanks to important coverage in The Tribune and to increasing discussions in the community, several of the salient facts are better known about our terrible shortage of necessary resources. We know about the social costs of untreated mental illness when it comes to crime, addiction, homelessness, the stress it puts on the system, and the emotional and financial devastation it can visit upon families.

What I’ve come to better understand is the maxim about how mental illness does not discriminate as it blots out the light of so many lives. The shadows thrown up can come at anyone in society, and do. But unless you have some direct experience, more often than not, your encounters may be with people who are scraping by at bottom, whether they are on the streets or in news stories about crime. These are not fair representations, but the paradox is keen: We sometimes witness the worst consequences of untreated illness, yet we have let fear and bias stand in the way of the necessary deployment of sufficient services throughout communities. This is true here.

The system, such as it is, is broken and has been for generations. Asylums and hospitals were closed and not replaced by some better, more humane form of long-term mental health care. Funding for treatment has continued to be slashed and diverted, and the lack of parity persists despite laws. And so by now, it is rare to find people who have been completely untouched by the scourge of untreated mental illness.

We see it whether we want to or not. Many of us are haunted by people in our lives who didn’t endure their brokenness. Many of us are enduring our own inner turmoil. People are still averse to speaking publicly about their experiences because of the stigma attached to it. This has only gotten more difficult in these times when civic discourse has become so debased by malicious dishonesty, and our culture has embraced humiliation as form of entertainment. These are not conditions that lead to what President John F. Kennedy, in a landmark speech on mental illness, called “the open warmth of community concern.”

If anyone tells you we are doing all we can, don’t be satisfied with that statement. If anyone leads you to believe certain people have only themselves to blame for their illness, ask whether people who get cancer or heart disease should also be suspected for being at fault for their illnesses.

This issue and this cause mean too much to too many to remain silent. Join me in advocating for greater emphasis on comprehensive mental health policy at every level of government. Join me in helping us realize JFK’s words to make it as comfortable to speak about mental health as physical health. Eliminating the stigma has to happen now. We owe it to others, and we owe to ourselves.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 4:10 AM with the headline "SLO County needs more mental health services."