Behavioral Health for All
Joni Schwager, executive director of the Staunton Farm Foundation, recently published an excellent article for Grantmakers in Health’s Views From the Field, in which she addressed how behavioral health affects the work of all grantmakers. She points out that behavioral health conditions, which include both mental health and substance-use disorders, are among the most prevalent problems in the nation and that behavioral health is therefore connected in some way to the success of virtually every funder’s work.
According to the American Hospital Association, roughly 50 percent of the population will be affected by depression, anxiety, addiction or other behavioral health conditions at some point in their lives, at enormous human and financial cost in lost worker productivity, homelessness, incarceration and spousal abuse, to name just a few. As Schwager writes, “Behavioral health conditions are frequently the underlying cause of many of our society’s greatest problems; at a minimum, they can be like gasoline added to the fire of other serious concerns.”
Schwager suggests that grantmakers can incorporate behavioral health in virtually every funding decision they make. As she puts it: “There is no health without mental health. Behavioral health is essential to overall health and wellness, and health funders can help lead this change.”