Policy Briefing Examines Second-class Status of Behavioral Health Care in Arizona
Some of Arizonans' most common and destructive illnesses -- those of the brain -- are failing to receive adequate treatment due to a combination of modern governmental gridlock and a centuries-old philosophy that separates the mind from the body, according to a new publication from Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.
Arizona's Mind-Body Problem: Mental Health Systems and Choices is the latest issue in the Institute's Forum 411 policy briefing series. The eight-page report looks at why mental health care has been relegated to second-class status, resulting in markedly fewer benefits for Arizonans with private insurance and a public system that has long has been criticized as underfunded, understaffed, and highly uneven in its quality of care.
How severe is the gridlock? Arizona's system, which spends more than $1 billion annually, has been embroiled in a major class-action lawsuit for 28 years.
National studies have repeatedly shown that mental disorders, from phobias and panic attacks to schizophrenia, are widespread throughout the population, inflict suffering on millions of individuals and their families, and cost society billions in lost production.
Yet most people still shrink from the stigma of acknowledging mental problems, while most health care providers still labor under the false premise -- refuted by the U.S. Surgeon General and other authorities -- that problems of the mind should be dealt with separately from problems of the body.
Arizona's Mind-Body Problem offers a range of policy choices, ranging from combating the stigma of mental illness to merging the public system with Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
To read the full version of Arizona's Mind-Body Problem, go to MorrisonInstitute.asu.edu. This Forum 411 is scheduled to be presented on June 17 to the Arizona Senate Committee on Healthcare and Medical Liability Reform.
Sponsored by Westcor, Forum 411 is a quarterly briefing series offering policy, business, and community leaders information on Arizona's critical issues.
Morrison Institute is an independent and non-partisan public policy research organization based at Arizona State University as part of the College of Public Programs.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Nicole Haas
602.496.0202
Morrison Institute for Public Policy
Arizona State University at the Downtown Phoenix Campus
411 North Central Avenue, Suite 900
Phoenix, AZ 85004-0692
