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Date: October 29, 2002
Dear Mr. President:
When you launched our Commission on April 29, 2002, you observed,
"America's citizens with mental illness deserve our respect,
and they deserve excellent care." We could not agree more.
There are a range of effective treatments for people with mental
illness, according to the landmark 1999 report, Mental Health:
A Report of the Surgeon General. It is our firm conviction
that if these effective treatments were more efficiently delivered
through our mental health services system, your vision of excellent
care would become a reality across America. Millions of Americans
would be more successful in school, at work, and in their communities.
They could contribute more fully to the vibrancy of American life.
Our review for this interim report leads us to the united belief
that America's mental health service delivery system is in shambles.
We have found that the system needs dramatic reform because it
is incapable of efficiently delivering and financing effective
treatments-such as medications, psychotherapies, and other services-that
have taken decades to develop. Responsibility for these services
is scattered among agencies, programs, and levels of government.
There are so many programs operating under such different rules
that it is often impossible for families and consumers to find
the care that they urgently need. The efforts of countless skilled
and caring professionals are frustrated by the system's fragmentation.
As a result, too many Americans suffer needless disability, and
millions of dollars are spent unproductively in a dysfunctional
service system that cannot deliver the treatments that work so
well.
A fragmented services system is one of several systemic barriers
impeding the delivery of effective mental health care. Our interim
report describes other problems, including our failure to serve
those with the most serious illnesses, our failure to intervene
early in childhood, and our Nation's failure to recognize mental
health care as a national priority. We are optimistic that our
Commission, in its final report, can offer you many solutions
for improving the serious problems we have uncovered. In this
interim report we identify several stellar community-based models-models
that illuminate how services can be innovatively and effectively
delivered in spite of these overwhelming barriers. We are awestruck
at what can be learned from the people who pioneered these programs,
from educators in Dallas all the way to Air Force Generals. Their
inspiring example can lead the Nation in mental health system
reform.
Sincerely,
Michael F. Hogan, Ph.D.
Chairman, President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
10/25/02
H. Stanley Eichenauer
Deputy Executive Director
New Freedom Commission on Mental
Health
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 13C-26
Rockville, Maryland 20857
Phone: (301) 443-1545
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