Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is coming up May 9, 2013 and this is a time to focus exclusively on the issues that plague our children today. Issues that dominate the media are also of importance such as:

• poverty
• homelessness
• gun control laws
• bullying prevention and development of consequences
• preventing mass violence
• suicide prevention
• providing resources for kids within the educational system to receive mental health services
• better services for children with autism spectrum disorders
• insurance-related concerns
• juvenile delinquency and criminalizing the mentally ill
• understanding the adolescent brain and its inability to make mature decisions

According to the National Alliance To End Homelessness (2013), at least 250,000 families are homeless. The National Center On Family Homelessness reports that 1 in 45 kids, or 1.6 million, are homeless in America. Homelessness is a serious epidemic and the issue is not just about the individual living with homelessness, but society in general.

While surfing the web I read an article about the “uncivil” nature of civil commitment laws.  Civil commitment is the legal process by which an individual with a severe mental illness can be involuntarily committed to a hospital for treatment. It gives families hope if their loved one doesn’t think they need help. Arguments against this action dates back to the mid-1950s when civil rights attorneys fought to reduce inpatient care. The detrimental consequences of this argument is noticeable in the increase in homelessness, victimization, crime, incarceration, and suicide.

De-institutionalization, the process of reducing long-term stay, has created much controversy in mental health. How do you feel about this historical event? Help or hindrance?

Homelessness can affect any of us. No one is exempt from this reality. Life is simply unpredictable. For many struggling with homelessness, it can be rather easy to hide. With a PO Box or the address of a close family member, no one will ever know that an individual is living on the streets day and night. Even more disheartening is that the majority are children or adults with severe or untreated mental illnesses in the US.

In the previous article we discussed issues most essential to promoting mental health services in the African American community. We also looked at the consequences of untreated mental health and barriers such as drug abuse, self-harm, suicide, criminal behavior, juvenile delinquency, stigma, and lack of knowledge.

Isn’t he just the most beautiful boy? This sweet, innocent face represents the many faces in America that suffer from psychiatric and behavioral disorders that go overlooked as a result of a lack of mental healthcare.

Black History Month always re-surfaces multiple issues of concern. Unfortunately, we rarely hear discussion about mental health among ethnic minorities during this time.

As you read the headline I’m sure you questioned what relevance Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr serves to the discussion of severe or untreated mental health. Rarely do we ever hear people emphasize the importance of following the example of Dr. King in our “fight” against society’s lack of knowledge about severe and untreated mental illness. But Dr. King embodied so many sophisticated qualities that add such a rich tapestry of cultural legacy and inheritance to my own life and society in general.

It is quite an honor to be given, by Psychcentral, a broader platform to speak about the issues that plague lives in this nation. We have so many issues to discuss, reflect upon, and reform. It is disheartening that we, as a society and as mental health professionals, only think in-depth about mental health treatment and severe or untreated mental health when something tragic occurs. It is usually when the tragedy strikes at home and the fear of becoming a victim of violence strikes at our innermost being that we react.