Baker Institute health policy scholar Elena Marks helps coordinate a series of summer salons sponsored by the Center for Houston’s Future that explores an array of issues related to community health. The first, on mental health, will be held on Friday, June 7 at 8 a.m. at the Junior League, where Houstonians will have the opportunity to engage with experts in the field.
The University of Texas School of Public Health estimates that one in five people in the Houston area suffer from poor mental health — that’s almost 700,000 people. Mental illness affects the entire community: families can fracture from the stress of caring for ill family members; schools try to educate students whose barriers to learning are rooted in mental illness; a significant percentage of the chronically homeless are people suffering from mental illness; and the Harris County jail has become the largest mental health treatment facility in the state because too many people end up in custody due to their mental illness. Texas ranks 49th among all states in the amount of funding per capita expended on mental health. This translates into inadequate access to care for millions of Texans. Our region has 23 inpatient mental health beds per 100,000, a far cry from the recommended standard of 70. Self-reported poor mental health days average 3.9 per month in our region, while the national average is only 2.3; lost productivity and reduced earnings cost the region $5.6 billion each year. The Texas legislature just appropriated an additional $312 million to address mental health issues. While not nearly enough, it is movement in the right direction.
The summer salon series is an outgrowth of the Healthy Communities Indicators Report 2013, which was co-edited by Marks. Click here for more information about Friday’s event, “Mental Health: A Community Challenge.”
Elena M. Marks is the Baker Institute Scholar in Health Policy and the chair of the board of directors of Community Health Choice, a nonprofit organization serving more than 200,000 members. She is an attorney with a master’s degree in public health and currently works as a consultant to the health care industry. From 2004 through 2009, Marks served as the director of health and environmental policy for the City of Houston.