On May 10, 200 NAMI Ohio advocates across Ohio participated in a “Sleep Out” on the Ohio Statehouse lawn in Columbus from 5 to 10 p.m. to bring attention to people with severe and persistent mental illnesses who, without access to care, often end up sleeping on our streets. We hope Ohio legislators realize the consequences of their votes on this vulnerable population and on Ohio taxpayers’ pocketbooks in their upcoming budget decisions.

May is national Mental Health Month and a good time to review a brief history of mental health care in Ohio and nationally. ...

Prior to 1960, many Americans with severe mental illnesses were locked up in state hospitals with little hope of being discharged. With the advent of new medications, in the 1960s through the ’80s, many patients were released into their communities.

Under the Mental Health Act of 1988, money spent on state hospitals followed patients into their communities for mental health treatment supervised by local mental health boards. This act stemmed the tide away from historical state hospital use and transferred money to community mental health care.

The 1990s officially became the “Decade of the Brain” when research established that illnesses, such as severe depression, bipolar illness, schizophrenia and a host of debilitating anxiety disorders, were the result of a malfunction in the brain’s complex neurotransmitter system.

The 1999 Surgeon General’s Mental Health Report researched the neuroscience of mental illnesses, its impact on society and people’s lives, and confirmed that persistent and severe mental illnesses were biologically based brain disorders, often successfully treated. People can and do get better, and with adequate services, even become taxpaying citizens.

Today, funding for these “adequate” services is in great jeopardy. With a state budget deficit of $8 billion in Ohio, more cuts in mental health loom, even beyond the $57 million already cut since 2009. More people with severe mental illness will be caught in a free fall that results in cost shifting to exorbitant taxpayer bills for hospitalizations, emergency rooms, schools, nursing homes, police services, courtrooms and prisons.

Suicide, which is at a 10-year high in Ohio, homelessness and — more rarely — violence are also results of untreated mental illnesses. A cost that can’t be measured is the cost in human dignity when public policy promotes a penny-wise/pound-foolish approach to mental health care.

In recognition of May as Mental Health Month, the Lindner Center of Hope and five regional NAMI affiliates are hosting a half-day conference on May 26. For information on this conference or NAMI Butler County, call the office at (513) 860-8387 or visit our website, www.nami-bc.org. ...

Sally Fiehrer

Butler County executive director

National Alliance on Mental Illness

Fairfield