Mental health has always been a taboo topic in conversations, more of a don’t ask don’t tell topic rather than something people feel they can openly discuss. This has severely stunted our society with making professional mental help accessible to those who want and or need it. With outrageous prices and depending on location having to travel, many people who would greatly benefit from some form of therapy are denied that help because of this. In the novel Ordinary People by Judith Guest we see the benefit of therapy highlighted through both Conrad and Calvin, they both have their own setbacks with mental health, and they see Dr. Berger and by the end of the novel they are both shown to be on the path to healing. This is only one, fictional but very real, example of therapy being beneficial.
Therapy is health care, physical health care while not free is readily available. If you break a bone, you’re expected to get it fixed. The came concept is applicable and should be considered to mental health issues. More than 50% of teens in America who experience some version of a depressive episode never get help (MentalHealthAmerica). This statistic should scare you, with depression and other mental disorders rising in teens mental health care professions need to be accessible to everyone and especially teenagers. Mental health effects all of us and access to help when needed is an advantage for everyone nationwide.
Some may say that making this a reality would cost too much, be a waste of money for the general public. However, a staggering number of 1 in 5 adults in the United States will experience a mental illness (Nami). That is a great amount, considering how debilitating untreated mental illness can be. Giving people easy access to the help they need will not only assist them in getting back up on their feet, it can help them become stable enough to get a job and or attend school if they hadn’t, it can assist people in the work force bettering America as a whole.
Most of the arguments against making healthcare as a whole deal with money, but this is for the better of America. The public paying for the health, physical and mental, should take priority over various other things money gets poured into and should take priority over the rich penny pinching. This is why mental health care is necessary to be made accessible and, at the least, affordable for the many who need it.
Work cited
“Mental Health in America - Access to Care Data.” Mental Health America, 17 Oct. 2016, www.mentalhealthamerica.net/issues/mental-health-america-access-care-data.
“NAMI.” NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, www.nami.org/learn-more/mental-health-by-the-numbers.
