tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post7226890864954917230..comments2024-03-18T03:28:36.581-04:00Comments on Shrink Rap: Let's Have a Task Force! Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-15665883781074414052014-01-11T16:05:05.900-05:002014-01-11T16:05:05.900-05:00Just remember what a colleague very astutely point...Just remember what a colleague very astutely pointed out to me last year:<br /><br />Common sense is the exception these days!<br /><br />Come on, politicians hate mental health issues, for at least these reasons:<br /><br />1. the mentally ill don't vote as a sizeable majority, so who cares what they think and need. I have been told a politician said that at a fundraiser years ago.<br />2. politicians themselves have mental health issues more often than not, if you count personality disorders as a mental health issue, and they don't want the attention to themselves.<br />3. Mental health care costs money that is not quantifiably justified, because how do you measure mental health improvements, versus follow up cardiac or cancer assessments.<br />4. Society still is biased and discriminatory, and live by the adage "NIMBY" regarding mental health and substance abuse services/beds in their communities.<br /><br />Deeds, not words are what define people. The politicians en masse do not care about mental health, until a sensational case happens that gets public attention. So, a Virginia legislator was stabbed last year, how long will the outcry last?<br /><br />How long did federal efforts play out after Giffords was shot in Arizona? A year at most?<br /><br />But, if it was McCain, or Pelosi, or even Cantor who was shot or stabbed, well, then you would see action.<br /><br />For about 6 months longer!<br /><br />That is not a jaded or cynical comment, at least not by themselves. No, that is at least equally painful, hardened realism being written here. And as I posted last night, people here in this state should be worried more about the coming legalization of pot in Maryland. One of the reasons it will be a final nail in the coffin for Community Mental health services, at least in MD.<br /><br />I'll be posting on that by early next week. It's raining today in MD, how much of my state taxes are washing down with the runoff?!Joel Hassman, MDhttp://cantmedicatelife.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26666124.post-67906306091088639132014-01-11T14:21:50.008-05:002014-01-11T14:21:50.008-05:00I have changed my opinions in recent years. I thin...I have changed my opinions in recent years. I think that long-term grinding poverty, which is the lot of most people with serious mental illness, is directly preventing recovery and causing relapses. The daily stress of poverty is unbelievable. If a person gets government income support, there are volumes of paperwork to fill out to keep it coming, and how is someone with serious problems supposed to do that, and in a timely manner to boot? While on an antipsychotic? Ah, a social worker person can help. But do you know, 3/4 of what they do is fill out paperwork to keep themselves coming? I am utterly disgusted with the fake help provided by folks who are supposedly mental health providers. <br /><br />The social worker types and their bosses love to throw out the little action phrases like "facilitating recovery." A lot of them are nice people, but incredibly, *amazingly*, ineffectual on every level. Even when very specific help is asked for, within the scope of their job, they somehow screw it up. What they are damned sure to do is make sure all clients get their Medicaid forms filled out, so the county and/or state won't be entirely on the hook for costs. DAMNED sure. Plus the paperwork that makes sure they can keep coming to the home and do nothing.<br /><br />Of course, I'm not addressing spree shooters - it seems the spree shooters don't usually come from chronic poverty - they are earlier in their mental problems, before the catastrophic economic fall. People who are chronically poor can't afford the fine firearms these spree shooters use.<br /><br />The truth is, if a mentally resilient person were forced to live in poverty and despised by all because of a label, and filled up with antipsychotics, they wouldn't stay mentally healthy for long. Society spits on this group of people then blames genetic factors for why they don't get better. Being a pariah keeps people sick.<br /><br />I dunno how it is other places, but this is how it is where I am, an area with many low income rural people. If you don't have family to help you, you're screwed. Of course, a lot of times the family IS the problem, and that's where I get so disgusted with these blogs talking about these loving families with their wayward mentally ill kid, and oh my, they can't get them help and they are so loving. . . everyone I know with really bad problems has a problem family. But you won't read that on those forced care advocating blogs. The family is always blameless and the son or daughter just paranoid.<br /><br />I also think psychiatric drugs are directly impeding recovery in a lot of cases, based on my own nightmare with those drugs, and I'm grateful many psychiatrists now acknowledge this. How about spend less on Latuda?CatLovernoreply@blogger.com