Guest Opinion on news of closing of Lower Bucks Hospital's Psychiatric Unit

By Kathleen Campbell

As President of The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Bucks County and a Mental Health Advocate, the prospect of Lower Bucks Hospital closing its Psychiatric Wing is deeply disturbing. Lower Bucks Hospital’s Mental Health unit is the last remaining hospital facility in lower and central Bucks after the closing of Warminster Hospital earlier this fall and Doylestown Hospital’s Psychiatric Wing five years ago. Because of NAMI’s work with individuals with severe and persistent mental illness and their families, we know that our community needs good treatment including hospital beds for those who have the misfortune to fall victim to serious brain disorders. The absence of mental health treatment in a local community hospital setting creates huge barriers for individuals, their families and the police who are called upon to help during a mental health crisis.

Here are some important facts everyone needs to know about mental illness and recovery:

·         Mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders.  They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence.

·         Mental disorders fall along a continuum of severity. Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 Americans — who suffer from a serious mental illness. It is estimated that mental illness affects 1 in 5 families in America.

·         The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US and other developed countries are mental disorders.

·         Mental illnesses usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescence and young adulthood.

·         Without treatment the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society are staggering: unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, suicide and wasted lives; The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than 100 billion dollars each year in the United States.

·         The best treatments for serious mental illnesses today are highly effective; between 70 and 90 percent of individuals have significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life with a combination of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments and supports.

·         With appropriate effective medication and services most people who live with serious mental illnesses can significantly reduce the impact of their illness and find a satisfying measure of achievement and independence.

·         Early identification and treatment is of vital importance; by ensuring access to the treatment, recovery is accelerated and the further harm related to the course of illness is minimized.

·         Stigma erodes confidence that mental disorders are real, treatable health conditions. We have allowed stigma and a now unwarranted sense of hopelessness to erect attitudinal, structural and financial barriers to effective treatment and recovery. It is time to take these barriers down.

Lower Bucks Hospital notification of its intent to close the unit comes at an onerous time;

 1.)  Legislation to require employers and health plans to cover treatment for mental illness on the same terms and conditions as all other illnesses has just passed both the US Senate and House and awaits the President’s signature.

2.)  As our veterans start to return from Iraq we will face an even greater mental health crisis. Experts estimate that 1 in 4 returning veterans will have serious mental health issues.

3.)  NAMI Bucks has been working diligently to get Crisis Intervention Training to our Police Departments. A key to appropriate crisis intervention is the availability of a hospital setting where police can take people to be cared for. Without that availability we fear that those in need of care may be inappropriately incarcerated.