The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's)Recovery Month is celebrating its 25th anniversary in September 2014. Its purpose is to raise awareness of mental and substance use disorders, celebrate individuals in long-term recovery, and acknowledge the work of prevention, treatment, and recovery support services.
This year's theme, "Join the Voices for Recovery: Speak Up, Reach Out,"encourages people to openly discuss and speak up about mental and substance use disorders and the reality of recovery. It aims to  foster public understanding and acceptance of the benefits of prevention, treatment and recovery from behavioral health conditions. The observance also promotes ways policymakers, first responders, faith leaders, youth and young adults, can recognize these issues and reach out to help others, as well as themselves.
Constituents in every jurisdiction across this nation are affected--either directly or indirectly--by mental and substance use disorders, raising difficult and expensive public policy matters for policymakers and taxpayers. Nearly 1 out of every 5 adults in the United States--about 43.7 million people--has a mental illness, such as depression, anxiety disorders, or schizophrenia, and approximately 22 million have been classified with substance dependence or abuse.
 Why should those statistics be significant to policymakers? Because, as the voice of their constituents, policymakers are in a unique position to speak up about behavioral health conditions and influence policies that help people receive the support they need. Untreated mental and substance use disorders lead to costly social, physical, mental, and public health problems. They lead to increased spending for state and local governments and in various settings, such as hospitals, correctional facilities, schools, and homeless shelters.
There are significant public policy and cost benefits to supporting prevention, treatment, and recovery support services and many treatments for behavioral health conditions that are highly effective. Most Americans believe that recovery from thesedisorders is possible and that we can counter these statistics by engaging our communities in making behavioral health a priority.
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