Thank you very much.
I appreciate very much our panel being here today. This is an issue that I know seizes all of us. Some around the table here, myself included, know this kind of more from a first-hand or family basis, too, so we understand the broader piece through support groups, that kind of thing, and on a fairly direct basis, too.
The one thing I was going to suggest, and maybe it's more of a comment, and you can respond.... I have four different questions along the lines of denial, stigma, that whole range of things; the paranoia around mental health issues, and why some are on the street that way; and then there's also this issue of employment and the stressor that sometimes is, and I think you've inferred that; and then lastly, because you made the statement about family care, which I think will always be a key kind of component of it, the nature of those who they trust around them more. My question is what can we do in terms of changes in the tax code. That's where I'm going with the four questions.
Around the issue of denial and stigma, I know there's the stigma issue, and I'm well aware of this piece of it, but there's also the denial thing. I don't know in terms of this study and so on that you folks have done, but in that aspect, as you would be well aware, sometimes the higher the IQ of the person, the greater the denial. Maybe it's stigma, but it's also as much that person.... For instance, who around this table wants to say, there's this part of my life that is not functioning as it maybe should? So there's that aspect. I don't know if you have any quick comment on that.
And I don't know how you'd change it, because until somebody comes to the point of accepting that they have this, that it can be worked with, that it's not a terrible dark secret in society, or whatever...and I guess that's where society comes in for the difference. But I don't know how you can change that. And believe me, I speak of this on a fairly knowledgeable basis. If people deny it, it's hard then to get the help.