Director of SCDMH relates how mental illness affects S.C.

(l- r) Scotty Griffin, St. Andrews Rotarian who presented the program; Ronald E. Prier,M.D.,M. P. H., executive director for inpatient services of the S.C. Department of Mental Health (SCDMH); John Magill, state director of SCDMH; Richard L. Acton, ACSW, executive director Lexington County Community Health Center; and Didier Nobels, St. Andrews Rotary president. The South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) State Director John H. Magill spoke to the St. Andrews Rotary Club on Broad River Road in Columbia September 4, 2007. He was accompanied by Rick Acton, Executive Director, Lexington County Community Health Center, and by Ronald Prier, M.D., Executive Director, SCDMH's inpatient operations. Mr. Magill's presentation was part of a statewide effort by the SCDMH to keep the public better informed about mental health issues in S.C.

Magill presented the Rotarians with some startling facts about mental illness, such as:

• Mental illness affects 20 percent of the population, which in S.C. is slightly more than 800,000 people. Twenty percent of the population means that one person in five has a mental illness.

• About six percent of the state's population, about 260,000 people, also suffer from some type of substance abuse problem;

• About three percent of the population has both mental and substance abuse disorders (co- occurring disorders) or about 120,000 people in S.C.

Magill went on to comment that mental illness is a treatable medical problem and treatment works.

Magill said the SCDMH is a large system of behavioral health care with about 5,300 full time and part time employees working in 17 community mental health centers and 50 clinics around the state. The SCDMH also runs four psychiatric hospitals: Harris Hospital in Anderson; Bryan Psychiatric Hospital in Columbia; Morris Village in Columbia for addictions disorders; and Hall Psychiatric Institute for children in Columbia. In addition, the SCDMH operates the state's sexually violent predator program; a hospital- based forensics program; and three nursing homes: Tucker Center in Columbia, Campbell Veterans Nursing Home in Anderson, and the recentlyopened Veterans Victory House in Walterboro.

Magill would like to see more school- based mental health programs; a greater use of tele- psychiatry, especially to serve rural communities; newer medicines to enhance the lives of people with mental illness; more research into brain disorders; and the elimination of the stigma surrounding mental illness.

For more information about the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, call 1-800-763-1024 or visit www.scdmh.org. For more information about the Lexington County Community Mental Health Center call 803-996-1500.