Taking Care of Alaska's Mental Health.

• Author: ORR, VANESSA
• Position: Efforts to improve funding for mental health care in Alaska - Statistical Data Included

Health insurance plans pay more to help those with physical problems than they do those with mental disorders. The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority was created to help.

At one time or another, everyone experiences difficulties. The death of a loved one, a divorce, the loss of a job. While undergoing kinds of stressful situations, it isn't easy to concentrate on work or to stay healthy, for many, it's a battle just to get out of bed each day. And for those who don't know how to deal with these changes, life's difficulties can result in a long, arduous struggle with severe depression and mental illness.

While the majority of people may not feel they can identify with those suffering from mental or emotional disorders, the fact is over 43,000 Alaskans, or 7 percent of the state's 1998 population, suffered from these disorders. According to the Alaska Mental Health Board's 1999 annual report, that number will exceed 50,000 persons by 2010.

"The line between what we think of as them and us is blurred at best," explained Walter Majoros, executive director of the AMHB. "At some time, everyone experiences problems that essentially have symptoms similar to mental illness. If these problems are not dealt with, people can develop more serious mental illnesses, including major depression, which can last for years. What's really important is to provide these people with assistance."

The Human Cost

Obviously, having a mental illness takes a toll on the person who must live with it, and on that person's family. According to the AMHB report, mental illness accounts for nearly one-sixth of all the years of life lost to disease, more than all cancers combined. Only heart disease is a greater public health burden to Americans.

"Mental health is indispensable to overall health, and the line between mental health and physical health is inseparable," explained Majoros. "You can't deal with one without dealing with the other. And mental health is treatable--the fact is, the cost is less and the success rate greater for treating depression and schizophrenia than for treating heart disease or diabetes."

This is one of the keystones in the fight to gain mental health parity, a situation in which health insurers would have to provide equally for mental health and for physical health. Currently, 90 percent of health insurance policies nationwide offer less coverage for mental disorders than physical disorders, a fact that has mental health professionals alarmed.

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