{"id":31510,"date":"2017-07-27T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/dr-william-c-bell-now-is-the-time-for-real-mental-health-care-2\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T00:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:31:14","slug":"dr-william-c-bell-ahora-es-el-momento-de-ofrecer-una-atencion-de-salud-mental-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/dr-william-c-bell-now-is-the-time-for-real-mental-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. William C. Bell: Ahora es el momento de ofrecer una atenci\u00f3n de salud mental real."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Casey Family Programs President and CEO Dr. William C. Bell addressed the Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience Education) grantee convening on July 27, 2017, in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Project AWARE is a grant program of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) designed to help state and local education agencies increase awareness of mental health issues among school-age youth, train educators and other youth-serving adults to detect and respond to mental health issues and connect children, youth, and families who may experience behavioral health issues with appropriate services.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bell traced the timeline of mental health reform in America from the Kennedy Administration to the present, described the pipeline to prison that has absorbed many victims of that reform and expressed hope that we will see real change in our lifetimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Every child deserves to have hope.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

— Dr. William C. Bell, President and CEO<\/cite><\/figcaption>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
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Prepared remarks<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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Thank you Lyman.<\/p>\n

Good afternoon.<\/p>\n

Undiagnosed and untreated mental illness has grave consequences for the people enduring mental disorders, their family members, the communities they live in and society as a whole. We are all impacted. And no matter what people may want to believe, our destinies cannot be disconnected.<\/p>\n

One of the questions that we must consider is how did we get to the place that we are in today? Whether it is mental health, increasing foster care, overcrowded prisons, or distraught communities \u2013 how did we get here?<\/p>\n

If you think about your own life and how you got to this moment in time, you will find that you\u2019ve made a lot of decisions. Some of them may have been connected to each other, but many of them were not. They were made at different times in your life and many were made under very different sets of circumstances. But there is no debating the fact that it is the collective total \u2013 the accumulation of all of those decisions \u2013 that have gotten you to the you that you are today.<\/p>\n

Many of us spend many nights and many glasses of wine wishing and wondering how things might have been different only if we had made some different decisions; some different choices. We also sometimes find ourselves contemplating what we could do or decide to do today or tomorrow or next week that might help us move to a better place.<\/p>\n

In a lot of ways this picture is not that dissimilar to where we find ourselves today as a nation with regard to mental health and the work that you do in Project AWARE Now is the Time.<\/p>\n

If you would allow me, I would like to just talk to you for the next 20 to 30 minutes on where we are as a nation, how we got here as a nation, and where I hope some of you in this room will be motivated to help us go as a nation when it comes to the future or children, families and communities that are struggling with the reality of mental illness and the reality of its impact on their daily lives.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0 The president: A 45-year-old President Kennedy and his speech.<\/p>\n

II\u00a0 The timeline:\u00a0 The timeline on mental health reform in America.<\/p>\n

III\u00a0 The pipeline:\u00a0 The pipeline that has absorbed many victims of that reform.<\/p>\n

IV\u00a0 The hope:\u00a0 The hope that we will see real change in our lifetime.<\/p>\n

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I\u00a0 President Kennedy \u2013 54 Years Ago \u2013 Feb. 5, 1963<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1963 \u2013 54 years ago \u2013 in a special message to Congress on mental health and developmental disabilities, President John F. Kennedy declared both conditions to be among the nation\u2019s most critical and tragic health problems. President Kennedy reflected on the advancements the U.S. had made in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that afflict the physical body, and the president noted that the need for public action to understand, treat and prevent mental illness was far greater than the attention it had received.<\/p>\n

Critical size of the problem:<\/u><\/p>\n