Mental Illness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Margaret Larson, who is most notable for her position with NBC News, mentioned “Mental illness is an equal-opportunity illness. Every one of us is impacted by mental illness. One in five adults are dealing with this illness, and many are not seeking help because the stigma prevents that.” Many nonprofit organizations were established to ensure that people with any mental disabilities are receiving the proper attention needed. A major human rights issue in John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” should not be overlooked. Lennie’s life is negatively impacted, due to not receiving the proper mental health care. It is sad to say but this illness does exist in our life today, not just in fiction.
Mental illness was a main human rights issue in the novel Of Mice and Men. “Now, look—I'll give him the work tickets, but you ain't gonna say a word. You jus' stand there and don't say nothing. If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won't get no job, but if he sees ya work before

he hears ya talk, we're set." Lennie may be a good worker, but is it really discrimination not to want to hire a "crazy bastard," or is it just good sense? Chip and Gail Angell have a 39-year old son named Chris, that suffers from schizophrenia. The Angells weren’t able to correct their son's medical chart and that led to their son, Chris, being incorrectly listed as uninsured. “Whenever we tried to get Chris to the hospital, we always ran into the fact that doctors wouldn’t talk to us,” says Chip Angell. Many health care providers don’t understand what the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act actually allows them to say to patients. This often leads to families getting shut out despite some extreme circumstances.
Now in the Unites States, health care providers are beginning to bridge the gap that is between medical and mental care, forming partnerships that are targeted towards improving the patient’s overall health. Tracy Young is a patient that attends the San Fernando Mental Health Center. She receives counseling and medication to help her depression and schizophrenia stay at bay. Despite receiving help for her Mental illness, “Tracy isn’t as religious about her physical health, yet she encounters painful arthritis, a persistent backache and a family history of cancer.” People with severe mental illness are more likely to die prematurely than those without, because many, like Tracy, don’t receive regular medical care. Why allow someone to die ahead of their time when there is something we can do about it? “If we are going to bend the cost curve, the integration of behavioral health care and physical health care is essential,” said Garrett Moran, who directs an academy for the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “This increased collaboration is driven in part by the Affordable Care Act, which made more people eligible for mental health services and funding for improving coordination of care.”
Under-funding of mental health services in England has ruined countless lives and led to “thousands of tragic and unnecessary deaths,” a report said on February 15th, 2016.

The study said mental health problems were “widespread, at times disabling, yet often hidden.” This is due to the under-funding for these types of health services in the United Kingdom. "Mental health services have been underfunded for decades and too many people have received no help at all, leading to hundreds of thousands of lives put on hold or ruined," wrote task force chairman Paul Farmer, the chief executive of mental health charity Mind. This study also showed that only one in four adults receives a diagnosis of their mental illness in any given year. Mental health represents “the largest single cause of disability in the UK.” Sad to say in this system, “most children and younger ones actually receive no support at all, and even those that do, the average wait for an appointment was 32 weeks” in the year of

2015.
Families being cut off from health care, under-funding for mental services in the UK, and the bridge between mental and physical health are things that needed to be brought out not only for the improvement of society but for our own wellbeing. From the time John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” was written to our current location in time, we have seen many of the instances mentioned above. Clearly, we have seen a push in the right direction by health care providers. Recognizing that mental illness is something that every single one of us is impacted by is a reason for us to never stop researching all the tools and studies that are available to us today. Why don’t you check it out for yourself?