Mental illness is the new leprosy
Sometimes thoughts enter my head and need to be put down in writing. This is one of those thoughts.
In Bible times (and probably for many years before and after) leprosy was a blight on society. There was no cure for it -- other than miraculous healing. People didn't understand it and didn't want to be near it. People who contracted leprosy, if that's even the right word for it, were shunned from society. Lepers are still not permitted to join society in India and are considered the lowest caste in that country.
Here is a quote from the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health regarding leprosy: "Ancient Indian society marginalized those with leprosy because of several factors: its chronic, potentially disfiguring nature; inconsistently effective therapy; association with sin; and the fear of contagion. This combination endowed leprosy with a unique stigma that persists today and resulted in its treatment with both seclusion and medical therapy." And then there's this: "...the Leprosy Act of 1898 institutionalized people with leprosy, using segregation by gender to prevent reproduction. For the self-sufficient individual with leprosy, segregation and medical treatment were voluntary, but vagrants and fugitives from government-designated leprosaria were subject to punitive action. "
In more recent history, medical treatment has been developed to cure leprosy and the prevalence of leprosy even in India has been reduced dramatically.
What does this have to do with mental illness? It seems that if you took the word "leprosy" out of the quotes above and replaced it with "mental illness", you would find that it is very true of America's response to mental illness in modern times. Individuals with mental illness are misunderstood and marginalized. Even those from wealthy backgrounds are seen as a blight on their families. Mental illness is poorly understood, it's causes are difficult to pin down, and it's treatments are often not effective over the long-term. Most mental illness is life-long after onset and many drug therapies have side effects that make treatment unpleasant for the patient. Many individuals with mental illness cannot be trusted on their own, due to the challenges of their disease, to consistently take their medication. The side effects cause many to elect not to take their medications. For example, the drugs designed to manage the extreme emotions of bipolar disorder often make patients feel numb to everything. A life lived without feeling is undesirable, so they stop taking their meds. For other treatments, drug therapies aren't effective over the long-term course of the illness. Most health insurance plans doesn't cover long-term counseling or case-management. Family members have to pursue other options to pay for necessary treatment options. And those are the lucky individuals who live in metropolitan areas where treatment facilities are available. For individuals in rural areas, options are usually limited and involve travel to larger cities. This increases the costs of treatment.
Our jails are filled with mentally ill patients whose diseases led to criminal actions (like violence). Additionally, thirty percent of individuals who are chronically homeless are mentally ill. Parents who need help for their mentally ill children struggle to receive adequate care. Often it isn't until their child commits a crime that options are made available. Unfortunately, it is often too late by that point, as in the case of Adam Lanza who committed the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.
In the case of leprosy, the Church was often a source of support services and care in places where the government had turned a blind eye to the disease. Perhaps it is time for the Church to respond to mental illness in the same manner.
In Bible times (and probably for many years before and after) leprosy was a blight on society. There was no cure for it -- other than miraculous healing. People didn't understand it and didn't want to be near it. People who contracted leprosy, if that's even the right word for it, were shunned from society. Lepers are still not permitted to join society in India and are considered the lowest caste in that country.
Here is a quote from the US National Library of Medicine National Institute of Health regarding leprosy: "Ancient Indian society marginalized those with leprosy because of several factors: its chronic, potentially disfiguring nature; inconsistently effective therapy; association with sin; and the fear of contagion. This combination endowed leprosy with a unique stigma that persists today and resulted in its treatment with both seclusion and medical therapy." And then there's this: "...the Leprosy Act of 1898 institutionalized people with leprosy, using segregation by gender to prevent reproduction. For the self-sufficient individual with leprosy, segregation and medical treatment were voluntary, but vagrants and fugitives from government-designated leprosaria were subject to punitive action. "
In more recent history, medical treatment has been developed to cure leprosy and the prevalence of leprosy even in India has been reduced dramatically.
What does this have to do with mental illness? It seems that if you took the word "leprosy" out of the quotes above and replaced it with "mental illness", you would find that it is very true of America's response to mental illness in modern times. Individuals with mental illness are misunderstood and marginalized. Even those from wealthy backgrounds are seen as a blight on their families. Mental illness is poorly understood, it's causes are difficult to pin down, and it's treatments are often not effective over the long-term. Most mental illness is life-long after onset and many drug therapies have side effects that make treatment unpleasant for the patient. Many individuals with mental illness cannot be trusted on their own, due to the challenges of their disease, to consistently take their medication. The side effects cause many to elect not to take their medications. For example, the drugs designed to manage the extreme emotions of bipolar disorder often make patients feel numb to everything. A life lived without feeling is undesirable, so they stop taking their meds. For other treatments, drug therapies aren't effective over the long-term course of the illness. Most health insurance plans doesn't cover long-term counseling or case-management. Family members have to pursue other options to pay for necessary treatment options. And those are the lucky individuals who live in metropolitan areas where treatment facilities are available. For individuals in rural areas, options are usually limited and involve travel to larger cities. This increases the costs of treatment.
Our jails are filled with mentally ill patients whose diseases led to criminal actions (like violence). Additionally, thirty percent of individuals who are chronically homeless are mentally ill. Parents who need help for their mentally ill children struggle to receive adequate care. Often it isn't until their child commits a crime that options are made available. Unfortunately, it is often too late by that point, as in the case of Adam Lanza who committed the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.
In the case of leprosy, the Church was often a source of support services and care in places where the government had turned a blind eye to the disease. Perhaps it is time for the Church to respond to mental illness in the same manner.
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