America faces a mental health crisis. Philanthropy can help solve it

With 1 in 5 U.S. adults living with some degree of mental illness, millions of families across the country are touched by this issue. But a lack of mental health resources and access to quality care remains a concern in communities around the country. As the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic unfold, we continue to learn how it has exacerbated an already deteriorating mental health situation in our nation.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which reported “increasing mental health challenges, experiences of violence, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors” among young people. According to the survey, teenage girls fared worse than boys with “nearly 1 in 3 (30%) seriously considered attempting suicide — up nearly 60% from a decade ago.”

Solutions to this growing problem, however, are complicated. There are various types and levels of disease that need to be treated in different ways. Depending on where one lives, the need for services can far outnumber the trained mental health professionals available, especially in rural areas. And while government agencies are attempting to address the lack of mental health resources, research and access to care, there is no way the government can solve this problem.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise as our federal government was never created to address these types of complex and personal challenges. More than 60 years after President John F. Kennedy established a program for community mental health centers, it is now viewed as a failure. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, which is a fierce advocate for the seriously mentally ill and better public policies to support them, the program “did not provide care for the sickest patients released from the state hospitals.” Instead, the centers “focused on individuals with less severe problems,” leaving a large population suffering and without vital support.

Fortunately, Americans have a secret weapon in fighting this battle — private philanthropy. Philanthropy has historically played a life-saving role in the medical field from helping us to eradicate polio to the more recent development of the COVID-19 vaccine. And, today, philanthropy is supporting numerous nonprofits that serve those living with mental illness, advance vital research and train mental health practitioners who can provide quality care.

One organization making great strides in early intervention and leading the nation in grief and trauma counseling for children and teens is the Hackett Center for Mental Health. Based in Dallas, the Hackett Center’s inaugural effort was launched to help heal communities traumatized by Hurricane Harvey. The center has since advanced a range of regional mental health initiatives that focus primarily on children, youth and families — such as helping children cope with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another vulnerable population that consistently struggles with mental health issues is our nation’s veterans. According to the Wounded Warrior Project, “1 in 3 veterans live with post-traumatic stress disorder” and “1 in 3 veterans also feel they don’t get the mental health services they need.”

After learning about problems with the care some veterans were receiving from the Veterans Health Administration, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus decided he needed to get involved. Today, the Marcus Foundation helps care for as many as 20,000 veterans diagnosed with conditions like traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress annually by partnering with local hospitals to create a network of mental health support. Its innovative Atlanta-based SHARE Military Initiative rehabilitation program, for instance, has gained national renown for the education, care and support it provides to veterans and service members — at no cost to them.

Mental health issues also contribute to other challenges like poverty and homelessness. Studies consistently show that 25% to 30% of the homeless population struggles with severe mental illness. Psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, who treated homeless patients with severe mental illness in Washington, D.C., for 15 years, has argued the decision to shut down public psychiatric hospitals left many without adequate care.

Fuller founded the Treatment Advocacy Center in 1998 to help eliminate barriers to timely and effective mental health treatment by advocating for improved treatment laws at the state level. Today, the center also publishes evidence-based research on the consequences of untreated severe mental illness, provides training for mental health professionals and educates the public about severe mental illness.

The lack of access to quality mental health care is indeed a crisis in this country, but solutions are out there. Public education, reducing stigma, supporting mental health research and engaging families and faith communities in solutions are all ways that we can contribute to addressing this crisis — and private philanthropy is leading the way in supporting them.

Christie Herrera is interim president and CEO of Philanthropy Roundtable. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

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