Mental Illness II

There were a few other things about mental illness that I learned. While it is not a significant contributor of mortality per se, it exerts a huge impact on disability adjusted life years - how many years of healthy life are lost. In fact, depression, alcohol dependence, and schizophrenia are responsible for 11% of disease burden worldwide. These problems are prevalent in third world countries. We also spent some time in small group discussing the stigma attached to mental illness. Like those with obesity, AIDS, and even cancer, there is a huge bias, distrust, fear, and stereotyping of patients with mental illness. This makes resources, job opportunities, etc. a lot harder to find. Indeed, a lot of people think that such diseases are a result of personal weakness: obesity is a lack of control over eating, and schizophrenia is a weak mind. This is just not the case. We should not characterize these people by their disease; we need to help them seek and get the care they need. Lastly, I was interested in the concept of a "5150." In the California Welfare and Institutions Code, any qualified officer or clinician can involuntarily confine a person who is a danger to himself, herself, or others for up to 72 hours in a mental health institution. This is fairly interesting; the state takes responsibility for an individual's well-being and can supersede that individual's autonomy, raising some ethical questions.