Print edition: 
One in four adults experiences a mental health disorder in a given year. One in 17 adults lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder. These people are our family members, our co-workers, our friends, our neighbors and ourselves.
Mental Illness Awareness Week, which continues through Saturday, is a time to recognize and talk about mental illness, to put an end to stigma and to advocate for support, treatment and recovery.
We know that early treatment is extremely effective. Between 70 and 90 percent of individuals who seek treatment have significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life.
We also know that treatment is more successful when provided early. About 50 percent of all mental illness symptoms begin by age 14, and 75 percent of individuals with a mental illness have symptoms by age 24, but many individuals wait up to 10 years after the onset of symptoms to seek treatment.
Good mental health is as critical as sound physical health. Comcare of Sedgwick County and a number of community partners provide treatment, services and care to more than 14,000 individuals in the community.
Mental Illness Awareness Week is especially important this year as severe budget cuts continue to threaten mental health services. Treatment provided through community mental health centers is the best-spent dollar in mental health — the average mental health consumer in Kansas costs $22 a day to serve. Unfortunately, over the past three years, such centers across the state have seen a 65 percent reduction in state grant funding (more than $20 million in cuts) to serve the uninsured and underinsured.
That means those who need mental health services end up in jail, emergency rooms or homeless. The costs for these services are significantly higher and often the burden of the local community. Even more distressing, the individual who needs mental health treatment remains unserved. We need to stabilize state funding for community mental health centers to continue to provide care for some of our most vulnerable residents.
In Sedgwick County, Comcare offers crisis services to help county residents on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. In 2010, there were nearly 70,000 calls to our crisis line for mental health emergency services. If you or someone you know needs mental health help, call 316-660-7500.
I hope you will take time this week to learn more about community mental health center services and treatment. Please talk to your elected representatives about supporting programs for healthy Kansans, and do your part in reducing the stigma that often accompanies mental illness.
