(Oct. 4, 2017) In honor of mental illness awareness week, it is important to remember the different impacts that serious mental illness have across different populations. A backgrounder published by the Office of Research and Public Affairs, "10 Ways Women with Severe Mental Illness Suffer More", found that serious mental illness had a more drastic effect on women than men, especially those whose illness is untreated.
People with serious mental illness are 23 times more likely to be victimized, and women are more likely to suffer than men. They also are more likely to have been sexually assaulted by a stranger, assaulted by multiple assailants or assaulted more violently than women without serious mental illness.
One of the many negative impacts of untreated serious mental illness is the criminalization of those with these illnesses. Women with serious mental illness have much higher recidivism rates than men with the same conditions, and while they are incarcerated, they are at more risk of self-harm.
The consequences suffered by women with severe mental illness are more evidence that our mental health is broken and grossly insufficient, leaving patients and caregivers to fend for themselves. It is the hope that through spreading awareness about the consequences of non-treatment, lawmakers will fix the damaged system by passing federal mental health reform legislation.
by Heather Carroll