CDC statistics state that mental health disorders are among the most burdensome health concerns in the United States. Nearly 1 in 5 US adults aged 18 or older (18.3% or 44.7 million people) reported any mental illness in 2016, and about 63% of Americans are part of the U.S labor force.

Many people, including veterans, struggle to get jobs because of trauma, PTSD, and general mental illnesses. They end up homeless because they are unable to provide for themselves and/or their families and it‘s detrimental and further damaging to their physical and mental health. 

Karter Insco, an MHS student, says “It’s not the fact that people don’t pay attention to mentally ill people, it’s the fact that companies don’t care about sick people. This country will not give us the chance to afford the right that we have to stay alive.”

Alongside this, senior Aja Tomes states “The United States profits off of the fact that people need help.”

Many people who need help are unable to get it because of the expenses that are required to get the help they need. When asked what accommodations could be made for the mentally ill, free therapy and paid leave were the most suggested.

Students Insco and Tomes agree that treatment and therapy should be free and that certain accommodations should be made for them. Mental illness is never anyone’s fault and oftentimes, they are either incurable or require many years and lots of time to heal.

A person’s mental illness does not define who they are as a person, but unfortunately, it does define how their day could go. People with bipolar disorder, depression, extreme anxiety, all struggle to join a society because of how mental illness is overlooked or looked down upon. The workforce doesn’t treat the mentally ill as equal to people without mental illness. This is unfair and unethical and something must be done.