Speech-Emily Chavez

English Final- Persuasive Speech

Emily Chavez

According to a USA TODAY report, there are over 500,000 severely mentally ill Americans who are suffering from the broken mental health care system in our country. More often than not, the mentally ill are found in emergency rooms, jail cells and even the streets rather than in adequate treatment facilities. The continuation of a failing mental health care system poses a problem for every citizen in the United States, whether that is financially, emotionally or physically. Each year, we see more school shootings than we did in the previous one. The number of suicides is increasing. Denying proper treatment to these sufferers is unacceptable and will hurt them and those around them.

Mental illness is just that- an illness. One does not choose to be clinically depressed or to be bipolar. There is a chemical imbalance in the body of a mentally ill person that causes them to act or feel the way they do. However, these illnesses tend to have a different stigma to them compared to terminal cancer or diabetes. Because this affects the behavior of people and the physical symptoms may not be evident or present, many Americans blame the person for their actions without taking into account that there may be a real medical motive behind the actions.

This is one aspect of the mental health care system that must be changed in order to provide patients with the care they deserve. Mental illness is not taken as seriously as breast cancer or as Alzheimer’s, simply because mental illness is very difficult to treat and understand and it is easier to label a school shooter as “crazy” rather than take the possibility of mental illness into account. There are clues that someone may have a mental illness and if Americans are educated on these clues and are taken seriously, we can prevent tragedy.

In 2007, Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho was ordered by the court to seek mental health care because his behavior was worrisome to peers. Sadly, this order was never followed up on and Cho killed 32 people and himself. James Holmes been reported to University of Colorado police as “potentially violent”. No action was taken after these reports, and he shot 70 people in a Denver movie theater dressed as the Joker. Even beloved actor Robin Williams committed suicide after years of a silent battle with depression and anxiety.

If these people had been given the necessary treatment for their illnesses, dozens of lives would have been spared. But instead, we live in a nation that continues to fail to recognize, understand and properly treat these people before it is too late. On average, those with severe mental illness live about 23 years less than their fellow Americans. Lives are being lost to a problem that can often be treated with simple medication and psychiatric help.

Everyday people are feeling the repercussions of the tattered system. Karen Kelley is 55 years old and has fought with depression for over 15 years. She describes depression as “being in a tunnel that's encased in with black”. Her psychiatrist tried to get her admitted into a hospital only to be informed that not only was there not a psychiatric bed available in her city of Burlington, but there was not a single psychiatric bed available in the state of Vermont. Karen felt like the world would be a better place without her, but she did not want to die. She knew she needed medical help one night and aware of the flawed mental care system, swallowed an entire bottle of pills and said to her husband “Now they will have to admit me.”

Unfortunately, she’s right. That was the only way she was going to been seen. Because there seems to be such a lack of immediate care for the mentally ill, the emergency room is the only option in many situations. In order to avoid waiting in the ER for hours, many do drastic things because they know their lives are in danger if they are unable to get help. Even after they are admitted, there is a only a small amount of time the ER has to keep the patient- only until they are no longer a threat to themselves or others. This is an ongoing cycle that for much of the mentally ill population does not end.

But that’s best case scenario. That is when someone recognizes their illness and is well enough to see the need to go to a hospital. What happens when they don’t? Many try to oppress the symptoms with alcohol and drugs, leading to troubles with addiction. With the combination of addiction and other mental illnesses, these people end up unemployed and often in jail or living on the streets. We see this in Lexington. More than 25 percent of the homeless population can be contributed to mental illness and lack of treatment. We are losing valuable and productive members of our community and our society because this country cannot take this issue seriously.

Mental health care affects everyone in the amount of money we put into a tattered system. It is estimated that we spend about $444 million. The bulk of this is spent in loss of productivity and disability payments. Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said, "The way we pay for mental health today is the most expensive way possible. We don't provide support early, so we end up paying for lifelong support." If America was treating these illnesses before they became a handicap, our society would be more productive.  There would be far fewer people on the streets and more contributing to our economy

We must strive to change two main things about the way the United States operates when it comes to mental health care and those who need it. First, we must begin to treat sufferers adequately- this means for the proper amount of time, with the proper medication and counseling. Over half a million people are severely affected by this and giving these people the treatment they so rightfully deserve is crucial to their well being, and society’s as a whole.

Secondly, we must advocate removing this negative connotation that people with mental illness have to endure. They are not “crazy” nor or they “freaks” nor do they have any say in the chemical imbalances in their brain that makes them feel and behave the way they do. I know that’s hard sometimes. It’s hard to be sympathetic to a school shooter who killed dozens of people, but we have to recognize their actions may not always occur with malicious intent. It’s hard to see the pain these people are feeling because it is not always evident from the outside. Just as we wouldn’t refuse a hospital to someone with terminal cancer, we should think it is acceptable to do so to someone who is suicidal or to someone with Schizophrenia.

This starts with people like you and me. Average people who refuse to joke about bipolar disorder when referring to the weather. Average people who do not make suicidal jokes when referring to studying for their finals. Average people that do not call the kid with anxiety in the back of the classroom a “weirdo” because he cannot help it. Average people who educate themselves on clues of mental illness and are willing to express concern when necessary. Average people who speak up against the current system and maybe one of us average people will be overheard by someone not-so-average. That may be a member of Congress who wants to write a piece of legislation reforming the way we treat sufferers of mental illness and make it a more financially efficient process. That might be someone who has lost a son to suicide and is happy to hear someone take the topic seriously. It could be someone who is silently crying for help and is waiting for someone to save them. Changing the way an entire nation feels towards a group of people is not easy, in fact it may be the hardest thing we could venture to do. If we wish to begin the construction of the strong and dependable system our country simply does not have, silence will not do. Be the voice for hundreds of thousands of those whose own have been taken from them because of a terrible illness and help them start building the efficient and reliable system they are in desperate need of.