A new crisis has emerged in the US scenario which has added to the woes already. It has been learnt that performance of many constituent states in the realm of health care (be it physical or mental) is downward and there is no hope of any early recovery thanks to the ongoing downturn and financial crunch. Can this be regarded as a direct aftermath of recession? Well, experts differ and some state that it will be too early to say something in its support while many presuppose that outright denial of it will also not be a sane job.

Nevertheless among these the position of the state of Illinois is really at stake. Reason? This demographically diverse, midwestern and the fifth most populous state in the nation have received a ‘D’ grade for its public mental health care system from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It should be noted that the organization’s report was released this week and it excels in grading each state on progress in achieving goals in changing the mental health care system.

Was the assessment of National Alliance on Mental Illness acceptable or worthy of acceptance? No. It was only three years back when Illinois received a grade of F for its public mental health care system and was hailed also as one of only 16 states that had an improved grade on the most recent report. But from that period there has hardly been any progression and the frustration (as a result) is found in the expressions of key personalities. One of them is Verla Demopoulos, president of the board of directors for the Illinois chapters of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. What was her own appraisal? She said expressing compunction, “Even slight progress is welcome.” “But, you can’t applaud too loud when a grade increases from an F to a D. There is a lot more work to be done. State budget cuts won’t help.”

Keep in mind that the national grade average given to states by the National Alliance on Mental Illness is a D. While six states received Bs, six received Fs at this time, there was no recipient of an A.