People with mental illnesses can often manage their symptoms through treatment, but many never receive it. Social stigma and the United States’ psychiatrist shortage are root causes of the problem. Those who don’t get treatment see their symptoms grow progressively worse, which means they have substantially higher odds of becoming homeless. Colorado Springs can fight this problem more effectively by defeating the stigmas that prevent people from seeking treatment. The city also needs to reduce the shortage of qualified psychiatrists in the field.
Mental illness exacerbates Colorado Springs homelessness. “The Colorado Springs Initiative to End Homelessness FACT SHEET” notes that of 1,171 homeless people surveyed by the Pikes Peak United Way in 2013, 26% were suffering severe mental illness, and the chronically homeless “are disproportionately impacted by substance abuse and mental illness.” Mental illness can interfere with work and school, which leads to financial difficulties that make acquiring and keeping a home harder.
Untreated mental illness proves especially problematic in any homeless community. Treatment allows most people with mental illnesses to function much better. According to the Mayo Clinic, “In most cases, symptoms can be managed with a combination of medications and talk therapy (psychotherapy).” This means treated mental illnesses won’t contribute as much to homelessness because managed symptoms don’t cause severe financial difficulties on their own. Joel L. Young, Rochester Center for Behavioral Medicine‘s medical director, states that “The most obvious effect of untreated mental illness is a steady—and often rapid—decline in mental health.” Thus, those who don’t receive treatment suffer increasingly severe symptoms.
Stigmatization leads to fewer mental illnesses being treated. As one American Psychiatric Association (APA) article notes, “Stigma and discrimination against mental health issues are unfortunately common.” Mental illnesses come from “complex factors, including a person’s genetics, childhood and life events, and the chemicals and structures in the brain.” In other words, weaknesses and character flaws are not solely or even mainly the causes for mental illness. People struggling with mental illness can become reluctant to admit that they need treatment. In turn, this stigma makes people less likely to support government policies that help the mentally ill.
Our country cannot adequately expand mental health care access without addressing the psychiatrist shortage. APA President Bruce Schwartz explains that the U.S. needs more psychiatrists to provide large-scale, high-quality care. Unlike other mental health professionals, psychiatrists have full medical training and can diagnose mental illnesses, treat them with psychotherapy, and prescribe drug treatments. The psychiatric shortage interferes with this process.
Because we cannot swiftly end the psychiatric shortage, we should work to reduce its effects. More Americans leave psychiatry than join it, so the shortage grows. According to Schwartz, “there were about 38,000 practicing psychiatrists in the United States in 2017, and 61.3% were 55 or older. Our workforce is rapidly diminishing despite . . . renewed popularity of our field among graduating medical students. . . . [W]e cannot train enough new psychiatrists fast enough to address the critical need for psychiatric care.” American mental health coverage will probably decrease as older psychiatrists reach retirement age. Untreated mental illness will therefore likely exacerbate Colorado Springs homelessness unless we reduce the shortage’s effects.
The Colorado Springs school system should teach kids how mental illnesses work to reduce untreated mental illness’ contributions to Colorado Springs homelessness. The APA article “Targeting Pre-Teens to Fight Mental Health Stigma” describes several educational approaches for pre-teens. One involved a 3-hour-long discussion-based curriculum delivered over multiple days that convinced participating students to have a more positive view of people who seek mental help and become more willing to befriend people with mental illnesses. The results were encouraging.
Colorado Springs leaders should also encourage adults to interact more with the mentally ill to reduce stigmatization. According to the “Targeting Pre-Teens” article, personal interactions between adults and people with mental illnesses reduce stigmatization more effectively than education efforts. Community and spiritual leaders should therefore encourage adults to interact more with the mentally ill. After all, “about 1 in 4 adults suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.” Community leaders could probably get many to interact more with people with mental illnesses by pointing out that most people already interact with some regularly. Moreover, these efforts would probably make more Colorado Springs adults willing to seek mental help when needed and support efforts to address the psychiatric shortage.
Our city should have annual school and doctor visit screenings to mitigate the psychiatric shortage by increasing psychiatrists’ productivity. Mental illnesses get treated more easily when detected early. Early detection could potentially allow each psychiatrist to treat more people by enabling them to treat patients faster. A Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration pamphlet explains that school mental health screenings identify students at risk for mental health problems, which allows for earlier treatment. According to the World Health Organization, “For every US$ 1 put into scaled up treatment for common mental disorders, there is a return of US$ 4 in improved health and productivity.”
Employer-based health insurance could convince employers to pay for screenings using productivity increases and use money saved through health gains to help pay for care. Meanwhile, productivity, health, and academic improvements from administering mental health care at schools could be used to convince taxpayers to pay for it. Our mental health care system should therefore implement these screenings so psychiatric productivity increases reduce the psychiatrist shortage’s contributions to homelessness.
Colorado Springs’ mental health care system should also prioritize treating young people. Those with mental illnesses that receive psychological help will have fewer academic difficulties. This spells better career opportunities down the road and a smaller likelihood of becoming homeless. According to the APA, “Fifty percent of mental illness begins by age 14, and three-quarters begins by age 24,” so consider this strategy a sensible preventive measure.
Colorado Springs leaders can also promote habits that will help the untreated mentally ill avoid homelessness. The psychiatrist shortage will prevent many from getting quality treatment, so we should work to reduce their mental health problems’ impact on their ability to function. People with mental illnesses can take several steps to better cope and function. These include avoiding substance abuse, “Maintaining a regular schedule that includes sufficient sleep, healthy eating and regular physical activity,” avoiding making important decisions when symptoms get severe, joining a support group, and staying socially connected. These habits will not treat mental illnesses or stop them from growing worse as time goes on. Nonetheless, our community and spiritual leaders should better promote them for obvious reasons.
The United States’ growing psychiatrist shortage will affect Colorado Springs. Many with mental illnesses will consequently not receive quality treatment. Our city should strategically utilize our psychiatrists, defeat harmful misconceptions about mental health, and help those who cannot get treatment to reduce the shortage’s contributions to homelessness. If we fail to act, then Colorado Springs homelessness will grow despite other efforts to address it.
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Samuel Dianda is a Pikes Peak Community College computer science student. He wants to apply big data analytics, the science of finding meaningful patterns in large datasets using mathematics, statistics, and computer science, to medical and economic research. He enjoys writing fiction and comedic lyrics.
