Tipper Gore, in New Hampshire, outlines incentives on mental ills

By Mary Leonard, Globe Staff, January 15, 1999

HANOVER, N. H. -- Highlighting a signature issue, Tipper Gore, the wife of Vice President Al Gore, introduced several White House initiatives yesterday that were aimed at preventing and treating mental illnesses and erasing the stigma for millions of Americans who suffer from them.

Mrs. Gore, who serves as mental health policy adviser to President Clinton, announced that the first White House conference on mental health would be held this spring. She said it would bring together health care providers, consumers, and government officials to look for ways to improve conditions for people with mental illnesses, from new treatments to community strategies for housing and employment.

Addressing psychiatry students at Dartmouth College's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Tipper Gore said: "Despite the many advances we have made in treating mental illness -- with new drugs, less institutionalization, and better community health services -- mental illness continues to be treated differently from physical illness. This in turn leads to more misunderstand ing, greater stigma and discrimination, increased reluctance to seek help, and greater disparity in insurance coverage.

"It's a vicious cycle, really, but we can do something about it," Mrs. Gore said.

In addition to the White House conference, Mrs. Gore said the Clinton administration will propose a $70 million increase in the federal budget for mental health services delivered by the states. The total block grant, which helps communities serve hard-to-reach adults and children with mental illnesses, would total $358 million in fiscal 2000, a 24 percent increase over 1999.

Mrs. Gore, who began a day in Manchester, Nashua, Hanover, and Concord, also said Clinton has asked government personnel managers to examine ways to encourage federal hiring of people with mental illnesses. Under current rules, people with mental retardation or physical disabilities are provided more special job opportunities than those with psychiatric illnesses.

Michael Faenza, president of the National Mental Health Association, a private advocacy group, hailed the initiatives as breakthroughs and called them a "terrific way for the federal government to bring federal attention to mental health services, which have been terribly neglected."

Faenza said Mrs. Gore was a "sparkplug" for the issue of mental health, noting that she was instrumental in the adminstration pushing for a 1996 law that requires insurance companies and employers to offer health care coverage for mental illnesses that is comparable with physical illnesses.

Advocates say they believe the political focus on mental illnesses has been sharpened in the last year by highly publicized, violent crimes, such as school shootings and the murders of two policemen on Capitol Hill, which were allegedly committed by individuals with psychiatric problems.

Earlier in the day, the coldest this year in the state, Mrs. Gore announced the Department of Energy will provide 640 low-income families in New Hampshire with home-weatherization assistance this winter. According to Mrs. Gore, who was joined at the Manchester Airport event by Governor Jeanne Shaheen, energy costs can consume as much as 14 percent of the budget of low-income families.