Even Medicare doesn't cover psychiatric illness on par with other disorders and some insurance companies won't cover it at all.

i'm not familiar with the nuts and bolts, but it's my understanding that coverage for mental health and substance abuse is the be the same as 'physical' health.

The biggest one is that there is no requirement that policies cover psych at all, so some plans just dropped it entirely or shipped it out to a separate company. However, Medicare did not do this and I think has finally achieved parity.

that hole needs to be plugged

Many Americans don't accept that mental illness as something that is legitimately disease, but rather as weakness of character or even factious.

Another issue is the public's perception of division of labor constructed by the professions and enforced by training and licensing

Within that framework physicians and surgeons attend to the "real medical" problems

The not so serious and non-medical problems are handed off to chiropracters, pediatrists, optometrists and...psychological therapists.

That gets further complicated by social institutions such as town councils criminalizing 'disorderly' behaviors, and by belief systems that deny psychiatry as valid (Scientology being the most obvious, but not only example), and the pervasive culture of strength that sees mental illness as a character issue either as a weakness, a flaw, or both.

It is very easy to marginalize those with psychiatric illness. No ribbons. No marches. No armbands.

MAD Pride: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Pride

funding for treatment needs to be increased across the board but, unfortunately, it is rarely a priority.

professionals within the VA system to evaluate and treat these people.

A shameful national tragedy.