U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s Senate campaign staff was not very transparent about the stroke that took him off the campaign trail for much of last summer.

His detailed medical records were not released. Voters didn’t learn about the lingering auditory processing issues caused by the stroke until September.

The former lieutenant governor has chosen a different – much more candid – approach regarding his mental health struggles.

When he checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his chief of staff revealed in a statement that Fetterman had “experienced depression off and on throughout his life,” but it had become “severe in recent weeks.”

And the news release about his discharge from Walter Reed noted the use of medication therapies to treat his depression. It also noted his improved mood, “brighter affect and improved motivation, self-attitude, and engagement with others” as those and other therapies began to have an effect.

We learned that Fetterman had “expressed a firm commitment to treatment over the long term.”

In the statement, Fetterman expressed gratitude to his treatment team at Walter Reed. “The care they provided changed my life. … I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works. This isn’t about politics – right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties. If you need help, please get help.”

This transparency may do more good than any legislation Fetterman ever will see passed in the Senate.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, an estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older – about 1 in 4 adults – suffers from a diagnosable mental health disorder in a given year.

More than half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, and nearly 60% of youths with major depression do not receive any mental health treatment, Mental Health America tells us. While mental health disorders are common, they are often not diagnosed; this leads to the kind of quiet despair with which Fetterman wrestled for years.

We wish everyone experiencing mental health issues had access to the intensive inpatient treatment Fetterman, as a senator, received at Walter Reed. We hope Fetterman takes that on as a legislative goal.

In the meantime, help is available, so please seek it if you need it.