Disability Prevents Upward Mobility Gasp!

This essay uses some academic concepts, but at least the subject is discussed in major media. Few wealthy and influential political groups or officials have an idea that disabilty exists.

[From article]

As Robert Whitaker reports in a recent book (which we’ve discussed in the recent past), the number of Americans disabled by mental illness has increased considerably in recent decades. A review essay by Marcia Angell recounts the alarming facts:

The tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007—from one in 184 Americans to one in seventy-six. For children, the rise is even more startling—a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades. Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children, well ahead of physical disabilities like cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, for which the federal programs were created.

(Scroll down the list to read entire article]

http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda?page=1

Mental Illness and Social Mobility
By Reihan Salam
National Review
The Agenda
January 9, 2012 12:21 P.M.