Welcome
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. -George Bernard Shaw
1 out of every 4 individuals in the United States is affected by mental illness. Major depression alone affects 5-8% of the adult population in a given year, and as many as 8.3% of teens suffer from depression for at least a year at a time. Anxiety disorders are the most common type of mental illness in the U.S., and affect more than 40 million adults in a given year.
"The stigma of mental illness is engrained in deep and ancient attitudes held by virtually every society on earth. Unfortunately, people who have mental illness also stigmatize themselves. They make few demands and their expectations are frighteningly low—with grave consequences. Stigma can kill.
The inability to discuss mental illness in an informed and straightforward way, to deal with it as the major public health concern that it is, is unjustifiable. There is a very large group that are the silent successful—people who get well from psychiatric illness but who are afraid to speak out. What remains visible in the public eye are the newspaper accounts of violence, the homeless mentally ill, the untreated illness in friends, family, and colleagues. What is not seen are all the truck drivers, secretaries, teachers, lawyers, physicians, and government officials who have been successfully treated, who work, compete, and succeed."
In 2006, Delaware's mental health care system received a grade of C. Three years later the grade has dropped to a D, in part because of the lack of consumer-run programs and limited efforts to reduce the criminalization of people with mental illness. Click to learn more.
It's time that mental illness receives the awareness and funding it so desperately needs! Delaware's mental health care system is graded as a "D". Let's work together to change that!
