Lately, it seems every night when I turn on the news there is another incident of a person with mental illness, diagnosed or undiagnosed, who has taken the life of yet another person – too often a child from our community. I understand the impact of this news personally. My family has been the lead story on the evening news. I have also spent my entire life immersed in the world of mental illness, and through my professional career, my personal life, and now my own personal tragedy, have a deep understanding of its ramifications on society.
Late last year, my husband, Bryan Hetherwick, a 58-year-old man who suffered from severe depression, reached his limits trying to access mental health services in Washington. Having recently moved from Texas to Snohomish County, we were unable to find a day treatment program for which Bryan was eligible. Although he was on medication, he was not receiving adequate day therapy that he needed. To make matters worse, our adopted 5-year-old grandson, Brennan, suffered from bipolar disorder, and we could not find an appropriate day treatment program for him either.
After months of trying to get help, Bryan had grown increasingly depressed. On Aug. 5 of last year, Brennan was asked to leave yet another day treatment program after attending for only one day. It was too much for Bryan to take. Too overwhelmed to believe in hope for another day, he placed his faith in life beyond death. That afternoon, Bryan purchased a gun from a private collector and later ended his life and Brennan’s just outside the Monroe Police Station.
Like my husband and baby, the majority of people in Washington do not have adequate access to the services required to take care of their treatable mental illnesses. And these are not actively psychotic people. They are folks just like Bryan and Brennan – intelligent, outgoing, loving people full of potential, with jobs and families. In fact, one in five Washingtonians has a diagnosable and treatable mental illness. Chances are, one of your family members, friends or neighbors has one. But most are falling through the cracks, and those like me are left behind struggling to survive.
The rest of us also pay a price. Lack of access to mental health care pressures other public services like schools, hospitals and jails, and costs taxpayers a lot more in the long run than keeping people healthy in the first place.
Only 7 percent of Washington’s mentally ill qualify for care under the state’s mental health care safety net – a patchwork of public and private organizations including community health centers and hospitals. But even these services are restricted to people with severe mental health problems. Most cannot truly access the safety net or even get appropriate medications until their mental illness has progressed to the point where they are jobless or homeless and past the point of recovery.
Although the federal government recently gave Washington an emergency, six-month reprieve on a planned $41 million reduction in mental health funding for services to non-Medicaid eligible people, immediate action is necessary to ensure we are not devastated at the end of those six months. If our system is not changed, undoubtedly, many providers will be forced to turn away non-Medicaid individuals like Bryan because there is simply no funding for their care.
We are at a crossroads – and for some, in a life or death situation. Either we make access to mental health care a priority, or we continue on a path that will create a population of people too sick to heal, their families left in shambles, and a system that cannot ever provide enough care to those who need it.
In the coming months, our state and Gov. Christine Gregoire have a chance to make important changes in the way we care for our relatives and friends with mental illness. The most straightforward and cost-effective strategy to make sure people get the care they need is to pass a mental parity bill that would require insurers to cover mental health in the same way they do other diseases like diabetes or asthma. But most importantly, funding for community-based solutions such as hospital beds, residential facilities, crisis and treatment centers, community health centers, and primary care physicians (who are often ill equipped to diagnose and treat mental illness) must be increased to make sure people with mental health needs can get care in their own communities where they can remain with their families and friends.
For the sake of the Bryan and Brennan and all the other loved ones lost due to mental illness, we must advocate for better mental health care access this year. It is the only way to ensure that they have the best possible chance to live normal, productive lives, and that our families and community are safe from more tragedies. In the end, we are all at risk and we all end up paying for those left untreated.
Carolyn Hetherwick of Monroe has worked in special needs, including the mentally ill, for 38 years.
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