The Mental Illness Problem.

[retromike22]

This is an article about a mother who has a mentally ill 13 year old son.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-mental-illness-conversation_n_2311009.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

"I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7 and 9 year old siblings knew the safety plan -- they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn’t have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit with a local pediatric psychiatrist.

We still don’t know what’s wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and teachers and school administrators. He’s been on a slew of antipsychotic and mood altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans. Nothing seems to work."

"At least we have health insurance now. I recently accepted a position with a local college, giving up my freelance career because when you have a kid like this, you need benefits. You’ll do anything for benefits. No individual insurance plan will cover this kind of thing."

This is a second article about a former state legislator who inadvertently made his now homeless son's life more difficult. He worked to eliminate mental hospitals and prevent children from receiving that type of care. The idea, being, that they would no longer be stigmatized and would not be isolated, but instead be among other people. The problem, the author states, is that because of this, elementary schools and parents are forced to manage their own children's mental illnesses, without training or the capability. In many cases, they fail and the children grow up to become homeless, in prison, or go on shooting sprees.
 
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-10-15/national/35500616_1_mental-illnesses-mental-health-large-mental-hospitals

Excepts:

"The 1980s was the decade when many of the state’s large mental hospitals were emptied. After years of neglect, the hospitals’ programs and buildings were in decay. In my new legislative role, I jumped at the opportunity to move people out of “those places.” I initiated funding for community mental health and substance abuse treatment programs for adults, returned young people from institution-based “special school districts” to schools in their home towns and provided for care coordinators to help manage the transition of people back into the community.

But we legislators in Connecticut and many other states made a series of critical misjudgments.

First, we didn’t understand how poorly prepared the public schools were to educate children with serious mental illnesses.

Second, we didn’t adequately fund community agencies to meet new demands for community mental health services — ultimately forcing our county jails to fill the void.

And third, we didn’t realize how important it would be to create collaborations among educators, primary-care clinicians, mental-health professionals, social-services providers, even members of the criminal justice system, to give people with serious mental illnesses a reasonable chance of living successfully in the community."

So, it seems that the first problem is that there is a serious underfunding of mental health services. The second, is that we should bring back mental hospitals. No, not "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" mental hospitals, but humane mental hospitals. We already have physical hospitals for your body, dentists for your teeth, so there should be mental hospitals for your mind. In the way a physically unstable person has to stay in the hospital in order to recover, it should be the same way with a mentally unstable person at a mental hospital. And, if they are unable to live on their own and are a threat to themselves and/or others, then they should be forced to stay there. I don't believe prison is the answer, since they should not the same as criminals, but I do believe some type of isolation from society (for the most serious cases) is necessary.

What amazes me is how so many of these parents of mentally ill children simply don't give up. I mean, it's beyond their skills, it's not what they want to do, it's making their lives harder, and saddest of all, they didn't do anything wrong. They just got unlucky. I think if there were mental hospitals that were paid for by the government and would take in any mentally ill children and adults, (and would force those who were severely mentally ill into the hospitals) it would make everybody's lives easier. It's just a win win win situation. The mentally ill are better cared for, their families are relived of that burden, the government does have to pay for this, but in return there is much less crime committed by the mentally ill, and there are more people who, free of having to manage a family problem, are able to contribute to society.

Or, we could ignore the problem and you could just deal with this personally as a parent, teacher, social worker, police officer, or citizen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpggD8tGBdw&list=UUN7U2T3uID9uzSbTd9t9e7g&index=9

[RogueBeaver]

I'm in complete agreement with you.

[Dave from Michigan]

I agree we really need to improve mental health in the U.S. I agree with your post but what about people who don't have severe mental problems that don't need to live in mental hospitals. There are many people who can function in society with medication or seeing a psychologist or some other type of mental healthcare. I personally have seen a psychologist years ago and found it helpful, (hopefully I don't regret admitting that). I'm sure there are lots of people with mild or moderate mental health problems that can become worse over time. How do we help these people.

[retromike22]

I agree we really need to improve mental health in the U.S. I agree with your post but what about people who don't have severe mental problems that don't need to live in mental hospitals. There are many people who can function in society with medication or seeing a psychologist or some other type of mental healthcare. I personally have seen a psychologist years ago and found it helpful, (hopefully I don't regret admitting that). I'm sure there are lots of people with mild or moderate mental health problems that can become worse over time. How do we help these people.

I agree that psychological help should be just as important as physical help. The hospital that I go to has psychological services available, but I don't know if there are covered by all health care plans. I also don't know if Obamacare made it so that mental health is covered by insurance companies. If not, it should be.

[Indy Texas]

We need to rethink the way community-based mental health services are rendered. No one should be calling for a return to the model of institutionalization that the US followed from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. But a purely outpatient model leaves way too many people slipping through the cracks. I don't think people fully understand the connection between the mass closure of mental hospitals in the '70s and '80s and the rise in homelessness that followed.

[Benj]

We need to rethink the way community-based mental health services are rendered. No one should be calling for a return to the model of institutionalization that the US followed from the mid-1800s to the 1970s. But a purely outpatient model leaves way too many people slipping through the cracks. I don't think people fully understand the connection between the mass closure of mental hospitals in the '70s and '80s and the rise in homelessness that followed.

Institutionalization is absolutely the way to go. That doesn't mean the system should be the way it was back then. But the proper path was never abolition of mental health institutions. It was reform of the way institutions operated internally: greater oversight to reduce abuse. These people often (especially in the case of the really violent ones like Michael) just cannot be trusted to make their own decisions on whether and when they leave a mental health facility. Involuntary commitment is the only way.

Instead, we took the easy path and just foisted mental health patients on their parents and the streets because government wasn't interested in being part of the solution.

[Sbane]

I agree we really need to improve mental health in the U.S. I agree with your post but what about people who don't have severe mental problems that don't need to live in mental hospitals. There are many people who can function in society with medication or seeing a psychologist or some other type of mental healthcare. I personally have seen a psychologist years ago and found it helpful, (hopefully I don't regret admitting that). I'm sure there are lots of people with mild or moderate mental health problems that can become worse over time. How do we help these people.

I agree that psychological help should be just as important as physical help. The hospital that I go to has psychological services available, but I don't know if there are covered by all health care plans. I also don't know if Obamacare made it so that mental health is covered by insurance companies. If not, it should be.

All insurance plans participating in the exchanges must cover mental health.

[RogueBeaver]

I'm with Benj here.

[TNF]

I'm with Benj here.

[memphis]

I see a psych every three months. Not for a "serious" medical issue. Just to get more adderall. And my psych is awesome. Love her! But it's the same crappy model as "regular" medicine. They make you wait a while. They see you for about two minutes. Write you a script. And send you on your way. Doesn't seem that there's much "healthcare" there.