Dear Ms./Mr. President,

I believe that there are many problems with mental health care today. First off, some medications are much too expensive. I don’t know the exact price of all medications, obviously, but I know that the medications I take are fairly expensive. If I didn’t have good health insurance, I would be broke simply from my medications. I would need one to two months' pay from my own job just to pay for one of my medications.

Also, I believe mental health care facilities should be free or at least less expensive than they are. Most likely, if a person is in a mental health care facility, they cannot pay to stay in it as they are missing time from their job. I believe there should be some sort of financial help system for people who cannot afford the help that they need.

Finally, some mental health institutions are very dehumanizing. I have friends who have been to not the best mental health care facilities that only give the patients food at meal times even if they don’t eat a meal. For instance, say a person sleeps through breakfast, they are not allowed to eat until lunch even if requesting food.  Also, patients are separated by sex in some mental health care facilities. There was a scheduled time in which the patients could interact with the opposite sex, about an hour a day I believe. I find this very unfair and unnecessary. I understand it if the patient is in for a reason involving the opposite sex, however, people in a mental health facility for, say, a suicide attempt should not have to endure something such as this. Also, there is no reason for this, especially since there are many different sexualities and sexual identities today. This could also bring up many problems if someone identifies as neither male nor female or is gender fluid.

I would very much appreciate you taking these points into consideration in your decisions regarding mental health care.

Thank you,

A