Subject: Mental Illness

Dear Congressman Orourke,

In 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th president, signed into law the Community Mental Health Act,
as part of a new frontier reform. CMHA was meant provide federal funding for community mental health
centers in the United States. The law moved patients from the warehouses back into the communities.
However, many people were not trained to deal with the patients and ended up homeless in big cities or in
jail. Congress passed this legislation at a time were the future was at the eyes of Americans, a better
world at our grasp. This optimism was met with nothing else than ignorance, a mistake that still affects
Americans to this day.
Fast-forward to 2009, the National Institute of Health publishes an article naming PTSD (post-traumatic
stress disorder), a growing epidemic. The disorder is triggered by experiencing or seeing a terrifying
event. It consists of but is not limited to flashbacks, avoidance of past anxiety, severe anxiety, insomnia,
nightmares, self-destructive behavior, and unwanted thoughts. 7.7 million Americans deal with some if
not all of these symptoms. PTSD can be incapacitating, if not treated or diagnosed, it can easily take over
the persons life. For example, if a woman who has been sexually assaulted on her way to work, develops
PTSD, it is possible that from that point on she has flashbacks, severe anxiety and nightmares, whenever
something related to the situation like work, or being outside, can cause any of the symptoms. This will
affect her efficiency at work. If undiagnosed, ignored, and dismissed for weakness, it is more probable
that she will experience it chronically, and might lose her job because of it. This is too often the result of
patients unaware of their mental illness.
People with PTSD are not just veterans, or soldiers. They are people from a variety of ethnicities and
geographical locations, and in truly unfortunate cases children. There is an epidemic in the United States
of America, a truly invisible, rarely talked about one. It is in this ignorance that the nation lacks progress.
This epidemic should be treated as one, PTSD is treatable at the very least manageable with therapy and
medications. However, the treatment is unreasonably expensive, and few health insurance companies
cover let alone work with people with mental illness. John F. Kennedy had a plan when he signed the
Community Mental Health act into law, one we have failed to execute. Legislation is needed to finish, and
move forward what was started in October of 1963. Legislation that makes mental health a priority and
affordable for people to seek help when they need it. Non-profit practices like CHE-paz in our sister city,
Juarez, are already expanding to one of the poorest parts Juarez, Rio Rivera, offering therapy, legal
counsel, and alternative medicine. Practices such as these are vital to the stability of cities not just because
of what they offer but the education campaigns they put forward to educate the people about mental
illness. Ignorance has slowed down progress for too long, and it is time to get our hands dirty and move
forward.
Sincerely,
Lucia Carreon.