02 March, 2010

Parity law requires mental health benefits comparable to physical care benefits

Great quote at the end of this article:

"Mental health is just as important as physical health," she said. "You don't have one without the other."

2 comments:

  1. Yep, they're opposite sides of the same coin.

    I was reading an article on meditation that pointed out that while we understand the importance of working our physical body to stay physically fit, we don't apply the same logic to our minds. Sure, we work our minds in academia to stay intellectually sharp, but what about training the mind to be concentrated in the present moment, without attachment or aversion to whatever arises? So again, we note how mental health doesn't seem to be as valued from the get-go in our society for some reason. Hopefully someday this will solely be a fact for the history textbooks!

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  2. I think one large problem we have in that arena is society's focus on NOT exercising our minds! Vacations, time/effort saving devices, and the majority of 'traditional' recreational activities generally aim to relieve the mind from having to work for the time being.
    Personally I enjoy things like reading and playing chess, things that generally 'exercise' the mind to some extent but that's far from the norm.
    Being physically attractive and fit is far more ingrained in our society (and understandably so), and I have no idea how we'd go about trying to promote intelligence to the same level.

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