The toll of mental illness is staggering, afflicting some 20 million Americans. The costs of schizophrenia alone are $33 billion a year, according to the National Association in Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. The problems are so overwhelming that one-quarter of all hospital beds in this country are filled by psychiatrically ill patients; that's more beds than are filled by patients with heart disease, cancer and respiratory diseases combined.

Yet, the federal government spends less than $15 per patient for research on mental illness while it spends $130 per heart disease patient, $203 per cancer patient and $1,000 per patient with muscular dystrophy, according to Dr. Jack Barchas, the Barklie McKee Henry Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College and psychiatrist-in-chief at the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital. Barchas will be giving a talk in Ithaca on May 4 to highlight Mental Health Awareness Month. His lecture, "Perspectives on Research on Major Mental Illness," is part of a special fund-raising event that will include a dinner, the lecture, an art exhibit and an art auction, all beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Women's Community Building, 100 W. Seneca St..

New York State Assemblyman Marty Luster (D-125th Dist.), chair of the New York State Assembly Committee on Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Development Disability, will present the opening.

Tickets are $50 through April 30 and $55 thereafter, and only 170 are available; they can be purchased through the Clinton House ticket center, (607) 273-4497, or by contacting the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County by phone, (607) 273-9250, or by fax, (607) 272-5343.

Hosted by the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County and co-sponsored by Cornell University Health Services, the lecture, art show and banquet will raise awareness about mental illness as well as money for the Quality of Life fund for the residents of Lakeview Mental Health Services in Ithaca, organizers say. The fund will give Lakeview residents the resources to take advantage of the educational, social and aesthetic opportunities in the Ithaca-Finger Lakes area. The evening will kick off with the opening of a traveling art show, "Sunshine from Darkness," of about 40 works by artists who suffer from mental illness. The show will be on exhibit at the Women's Community Building until June 4. The Community School of Music and Art's Adult Chamber Group will perform works from composers who have suffered from mental illnesses, and attendees will enjoy a gourmet dinner, donated by Wegman's Food Pharmacy. Peggy Haine, a consultant/writer with the Communication Strategies office at Cornell, will auction several art pieces, including a museum-quality hand-painted sewing table from artist Betsy Salm and a bas relief sculpture by Teresa Howley, an illustrator in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. See http://www.innithaca.com/art.html to view the art to be auctioned.