Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 100 Part 1.djvu/950

 100 STAT. 914

PUBLIC LAW 99-404—AUG. 27, 1986

Public Law 99-404 99th Congress

-'-'- '''•\^^" 5"?)K: ': Joint Resolution

Aug. 27, 1986 [S.J. Res. 298]

To designate the week of October 5, 1986, through October 11, 1986, as "Mental Illness Awareness Week".

Whereas mental illness is a problem of grave concern and consequence in American society, though one widely but unnecessarily feared and misunderstood; Whereas thirty-one to forty-one million Americans annually suffer •from clearly diagnosable mental disorders involving significant disability with respect to employment, attendance at school, or independent living; Whereas more than ten million Americans are disabled for long periods of time by schizophrenia, manic depressive disorder, and major depression; Whereas between 30 and 50 per centum of the homeless suffer serious, chronic forms of mental illness; Whereas alcohol, drug, and mental disorders affect almost 19 per centum of American adults in any six-month period; Whereas mental illness in at least twelve million children interferes with vital development and maturational processes; Whereas mental disorder-related deaths are estimated to be thirtythree thousand, with suicide accounting for at least twenty-nine thousand, although the real number is thought to be at least three times higher; Whereas our growing population of the elderly is particularly vulnerable to mental illness; Whereas mental disorders result in staggering costs to society, totalling an estimated $106,200,000,000 in direct treatment and support and indirect costs to society, including lost productivity; Whereas mental illness is increasingly a treatable disability with excellent prospects for amelioration and recovery when properly recognized; Whereas families of mentally ill citizens and those persons themselves have begun to join self-help groups seeking to combat the unfair stigma of the diseases, to support greater national investment in research, and to advocate for an adequate continuum of care from hospital to community; Whereas in recent years there have been unprecedented major research developments bringing new methods and technology to the sophisticated and objective study of the functioning of the brain and its linkages to both normal and abnormal behavior; Whereas research in recent decades has led to a wide array of new and more effective modalities of treatment (both somatic and psychosocial) for some of the most incapacitating forms of mental illness (including schizophrenia, major affective disorders, phobias, and phobic disorders); Whereas appropriate treatment of mental illness has been demonstrated to be cost effective in terms of restored productivity,

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