Dear Future President,

One in five American adults have a diagnosable mental disorder, that’s roughly 43 million people who live in the United States that suffer from a mental disorder, and that’s just adults. At a time where the United States is so obviously in need of mental health funds they are being cut back. The mental health field has been losing ground on importance for decades but now it’s come to a point where we are both literally and figuratively ‘paying’ for the many years we have spent neglecting it. The mental health funding crisis is an increasingly important issue that is vastly affecting the nation. The budget cuts aren’t just affecting the mental health organizations but the clients, the people, as well.

Extreme budget cuts play a huge role in in the mental health funding crisis. Losing so much money in such a short amount of time is breaking the system. According to The Washington Post “States have cut their funding of mental health by $4.3 billion”. This major loss money makes it hard for mental health organizations to function the in same ways the normally do while still running the same programs. If we increase the state's budget that is set aside for mental health services we could slowly fix the damaged system.

Mental health budget cuts are part of funding problem but one of the other parts is timing. Right now millions of people are needing, if not seeking, mental health services in America. Huffington Post states “the demand for mental health services is skyrocketing”. The funding for mental health health organizations has been dropping in a time where more people than ever need help. It’s simple, demand is going up and funds are going down and financial disaster is about to strike. In many ways it already has, the quality and quantity of the services being provided to clients has been cut to the bare minimum in many mental health organizations. If we pitch in to help we could begin fixing the mental health system which would be helping citizens nationwide.

Mental health is very costly and doesn’t always seem as important as some of the other major things states have to pay for ,but it is, especially now. According to USA Today “the way we pay for mental health today is the most expensive way possible”. This is exactly why we it’s so hard to mend the system, and it’s definitely not going to be easy, but it needs to be done. Yes, it costs a lot of money that we don’t have, but we can help restore the mental health system. It’s going to take lots of money and time to correct the system but it is definitely a possible feat.

In conclusion, the mental health funding crisis is not something that can be easily ignored. Every moment that we are waiting to help millions of lives are being affected. The longer we wait the more damaged the mental health system becomes and the less helpful it becomes to it’s clients due to cut-off resources. You can help bring awareness and importance to this issue. Let’s put an end to an issue that never should have started.

Sincerely,

Madison Rosonke