Gone Mental

Mayor of Beverly Hills Dr. Julian Gold, M.D. reflects on the cultural paradigm shifts in mental health treatment through his own personal experience

By Mayor of Beverly Hills Julian Gold

Those of you my age probably saw the title and had two reactions. The first would be a flashback to younger days when “gone mental” was the jargon for all mental wellness issues. It was generally a pejorative term and essentially indicated that someone was not in complete control of their faculties regardless of the cause. The second reaction might be that it is not very politically correct. I would agree and suggest that it is not correct on many levels.

Until recently, we did not discuss mental health openly. It is hard to know why people with mental illness were stigmatized, but no doubt, they were. Thankfully, in recent years, we have been able to begin to remove the stigma and start a discussion of mental wellness and health. Perhaps it was the pandemic, or homelessness, or the drug addiction issue, but suddenly, we find ourselves able to discuss this. And discuss it, we must. In my opinion, there needs to be a paradigm shift. What if we considered 'mental health' in the same way we do 'cardiac health'?

“We need to find better ways to treat those who have a mental illness. More importantly, we must develop programs to prevent mental disease and promote mental wellness.”

Until the mid-1960s, most work on cardiac health was curing disease. Many new and innovative treatments were found to treat people with heart attacks. Some proved very successful. But the real successes came when we began understanding the causes and developed large programs designed for prevention, blood pressure control, diet, exercise - and cardiac wellness programs. Today, cardiac health programs are all about curing those who are ill, but as importantly, supporting cardiac wellness and preventing disease.

This should be the model for mental health as well. We need to find better ways to treat those who have a mental illness. But equally or more importantly, we must develop programs to prevent mental disease and promote mental wellness. These prevention programs need to start early — with kids in schools. We need to train teachers to recognize young kids who need care and direct them to that care. We need to train the kids to tell us if they feel unwell, physically, or mentally, without being embarrassed, so we can help them. Tens of millions of dollars are directed to mental health treatment. We need to take some of those dollars and use them for research and prevention. We have not cured heart disease, but we have made great strides to prevent it. Research, prevention, and therapy work for heart health. They will also work for mental health. And in this, we will remove the stigma that suggests mental illness is different from any other illness. In this world, no one will 'go mental,' but instead, will be treated as a person with a medical issue that needs attention.