Mental illnesses or substance-abuse problems strike one out of every five Americans each year yet fewer than one-third of those affected get treatment.

Barriers to that care have to be knocked down, according to a report prepared recently by Community Voices, an initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Albuquerque is one of 13 communities participating in a program to get more health care to underserved people. Local officials recently talked about what they are doing to improve mental-health services in New Mexico.

"We should take the brain as part of the human anatomy and say it's an organ just like the heart," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "If, from the very beginning, all group health insurance had been compelled to cover mental illness like a heart condition, I believe we wouldn't be here today."

More resources would have gone into both treatment of and research into mental illnesses, he said. As it is, Domenici is sponsoring a bill that would require every health insurance policy to cover mental illness to the same extent it is covered for federal employees.

"Some call it parity; some call it anti-discrimination I call it the right thing for America to do and do soon," Domenici said at a recent news conference at the University of New Mexico.

Dr. R. Philip Eaton, UNM's vice president for health sciences, said progress is being made. UNM Cares, a program to get health care to uninsured, low-income people, is getting mental-health services to that group, he said.

At the same time, advanced brain imaging systems at UNM and the VA Healthcare System, combined with research into the human genome, are helping explain mental illnesses, Eaton said.

And UNM is heading an effort to bring together all the players involved in mental health to set a direction and goals for making care available to people, he said.

Last September, the Albuquerque Journal ran a series of stories about mental-health programs closing down, psychiatrists leaving the state and increasing difficulty people were having in getting mental-health services. Health Secretary Alex Valdez said he hasn't seen any improvement since then.

A couple of projects the department is undertaking this summer might have some impact, though, he said. The Legislature approved $3 million to spend on programs for inmates, particularly women, with mental-health and substance abuse problems, Valdez said. Jail administrators are being surveyed on mental-health needs in their lockups and pre-jail or in-jail treatment programs will be developed, he said.

This population is important because people with mental illnesses often end up running afoul of the law and getting locked up. "There are more mentally ill in county and city jails than in all the hospitals treating mental illnesses," Domenici said.

In addition, the Department of Health is joining with other agencies and private health-care systems to assess mental-health needs in the state and the ability to meet those needs, Valdez said. Then advocates can have hard data to submit to the governor and Legislature next year to seek more money for substance abuse and mental-health programs, he said.

Needs are particularly great in southern New Mexico, according to Valdez. "The southern part of the state has far fewer resources than (the area) from Bernalillo County north," he said.

Copyright 2001 - Reprinted with permission of the Albuquerque Journal. All rights reserved. Obtain additional permission by typing http://www.icopyright.com/3.4676.35980 into any browser. iCopyright Clearance License 3.4676.35980