City Club of Central Oregon is tackling this neglected part of healthcare.

Robin Henderson is the Chief Behavioral Health Officer at St. Charles.  She says we have to make businesses realize there's a cost to not offering and encouraging mental health treatment.

"Lets start with dealing with a diabetic with undiagnosed depression and that can cost 10 to 12 times more for treatment and that 's the business case of this."

"We have to normalize it.  That's  one of the things that is behind some of the changes at St. Charles.  I'm the Chief of Behavioral Health and part of the reason we moved to that is to elevate behavioral health so it's as common as nursing to healthcare.  Behavioral  health really needs to be inbedded to all the services we provide."

City Club plans to explore the local impact of lack of recognition and treatment for mental health issues.