Patrick Kennedy speaks on mental illness issues

Patrick Kennedy believes there is a stigma attached to mental illnesses which is based off misunderstanding and ignorance.

“When it comes to the physical symptoms of a mental illness, it is behavioral, and we associate behavior with character. So, if you act strange, if you act weird, you’re called crazy, nuts, psycho. Who wants those pejoratives?” said Kennedy.

Kennedy, a former Democratic U.S. representative of Rhode Island and co-founder of the non-profit organization One Mind for Research, spoke passionately in Goldstein Auditorium Wednesday night about his organization’s goal to revolutionize brain research and breach the stigma attached to mental illness.

In October 2008, Kennedy asserted himself as a champion of mental illness. He was the lead Democratic co-sponsor of the newly-minted Paul Wellstone Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, a bill requiring most group health plans to ensure that coverage of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders is equitable with all other medical procedures covered in the plan.

“The brain is part of the body the last time I checked, and it’s not okay to treat [mental illness] as anything but physical,” Kennedy said. “It is no longer okay to marginalize people simply because their illness is in their brain as opposed to any other organ in their body.”

As a result, many people are self-conscious about identifying themselves as having a mental illness out of fear of being looked down on. Kennedy, who spoke openly about his battles with bipolar disorder and alcoholism, has made it his mission to change this fear.

As navigators of the last medical frontier, the brain, neuroscientists will be the “first responders” to an issue of grave national importance: the mental health of our men and women serving in the military, Kennedy said.

During the emotional climax of the night during Kennedy's speech, he called our soldiers “prisoners of war,” imprisoned by the mental trauma they experience while on tour.

“They’ve chosen a way out -- it’s called suicide. And what really bothers me, is that this doesn’t bother more Americans. That we’re losing more of our active duty military to their own hand than we’re losing in combat. Why isn’t that on the front page of every major newspaper in the country?” he said.

Despite acknowledging that “the political process is broken right now,” Kennedy said he believes this issue of “getting behind the very people that got behind all of us” is one that may garner enough political will to make a serious difference in how mental health is viewed.

This resonated with newspaper and online journalism sophomore Max Antonucci, who said the issue of veterans getting the treatment they need for mental illness “can bring both sides of the aisle together because that’s an issue that goes beyond partisanship and is something everyone can agree on.”

Colin Crowley, president of the Syracuse University College Democrats, said everyone can make a difference in their own way.

“Whether it’s being more open about your diagnosed mental illness, making people feel more comfortable about it or simply becoming more aware, there are little things that everyone can do to end the stigma,” he said.