Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 1.djvu/507

 PUBLIC LAW 99-112—OCT. 1, 1985

99 STAT. 485

Public Law 99-112 99th Congress Joint Resolution To designate the week of October 6, 1985, through October 12, 1985, 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 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 developmental and maturational processes; Whereas mental disorder-related deaths are estimated to be thirtythree thousand with combined 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, totaling an estimated $87,000,000,000 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 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 (pharmacological, behavioral, psychosocial) for some of the most incapacitating forms of mental illness (including schizophrenia, major effective disorders, phobias, and panic disorders); Whereeis appropriate treatment of mental illness has been demonstrated to be cost effective in terms of restored productivity, reduced utilization of other health services, and lessened social dependence; and Whereas recent and unparalleled growth in scientific knowledge about mental illness has generated the current emergence of a new threshold of opportunity for future research advances and fruitful application to specific clinical problems: Now, therefore, be it

Oct. 1, 1985 [S.J. Res. 67]

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