The Carter Center Mental Health Program: addressing the public health crisis in the field of mental health through policy change and stigma reduction.

Some of the most pervasive and debilitating illnesses are mental illnesses, according to World Health Organization's The World Health Report 2001--Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope. Neuropsychiatric conditions account for four of the top five leading causes of years of life lived with disability in people aged 15 to 44 in the Western world. Many barriers prevent people with mental illnesses from seeking care, such as prohibitive costs, lack of insurance, and the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illnesses.