Brains in Cages

BLOGWORTHY “Blog Replacement”

I’ve been traveling for 3 weeks, busy with mental health advocacy, and haven’t settled on a blog yet… So, when I ran across this, I decided to just POST IT, instead of a blog…for now.  #GREATNESS  #Ican'tTakeCredit #JohnOliver

WATCH THIS VIDEO ( link )

Mental Health:  

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (monologue Oct 4, 2015):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGY6DqB1HX8&feature=player_embedded

1. Stigma:  (min: 00.20 seconds in)

Derogatory words/phrases used to talk about the mentally ill by media and in life.

(examples:  “wacko” “psycho” “cray cray” etc.,

Cited: Dr. Harold Schwartz, Chief Psychiatrist, Hartford Hospital

(video clip from LAST WEEK TONIGHT interview)

CONCLUSION:

Current accepted vernacular perpetuates stigma.

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2. Aftermath of mass shootings, media:  (min: 2:38)

Cited:  Annals of Epidemiology

(The Official Journal of the American College of Epidemiology)

May 2015 Article:  Mental illness and the reduction of gun violence and suicide:  bringing epidemiologic research to policy

Quote:

“…the large majority of people with mental disorders do not engage in violence against others…”

And

Cited:  American Journal of Public Health

Article: Mental Illness, Mass Shooting, and the Politics of American Firearms

Quote: 

“…fewer that 5% of the 120,000 gun-related killings were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness.”

And

“…adults with mental illnesses were more likely to be victims that perpetrators of community violence.”

CONCLUSION: 

It’s deeply misleading reporting the mentally ill are violent.

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3. Statistics/Number of mentally ill in America:  (min: 3:35)

Cited:  SAMHSA – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

November 2014 Article:  Results from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:  Mental Health Findings

Quote:

“In 2013, an estimated 43.8 million adults … in the United States had any mental illness (AMI) …  This represents 18.5 percent of all adults in this country.”

And

“10.0 million … had serious mental illness … in the past year.”

CONCLUSION:

Mental illness numbers are rising, not falling.  (Personal footnote:  See Pulitzer nominated researcher Robert Whitaker’s book: ANATOMY OF AN EPIDEMIC)

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4. Closing of the Mental Asylums (min: 4:41)

In the 1960’s President Kennedy signed a bill to close mental hospitals.

Cited:  DAN RATHER PRESENTS (2014) AXS TV (video clip)

Quoting President John F. Kennedy audio recording:

“Under this legislation, custodial mental institutions, will be replaced by therapeutic centers.  It should be possible within a decade or two, to reduce the number of patients in mental institutions by fifty percent or more.”

And

Cited: AP: Mentally ill pose threat to elderly in nursing homes.

(Chicago March, 23, 2009)

Quote:

“…nearly 125,000 young and middle-aged adults with serious mental illness lived in US nursing homes last year.”

And

Cited:  DAN RATHER PRESENTS (2014) AXS TV (video clip) (min 6:00)

Re:  “Greyhound Therapy” – “a practice critics call unthinkable.  Discharging seriously mentally ill patients too soon, then supplying them with a one-way ticket out of town.”

*****(JEFF DECEMBER 2015 from GRIFFIN MEMORIAL, Norman OK)

CONCLUSION:

The community mental health centers were never funded.  And “treatment” with drugs as outpatient, can be so stressful on the seriously mentally ill, when sometimes they cannot manage their own lives, and need basics:  stable, healthy nutrition, counseling/therapies, and overall care.  #NeedNewKindOfHospitalsAgain

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5. The Mentally Ill in JAIL (min: 6:45)

Cited:  National Alliance on Mental Illness, Treatment Advocacy Center

(video clip)

Quote:

“Two million people with mental illness go to state and local jails every year.  That’s meant, there’s now ten times more people behind bars than in state funded psychiatric treatment.”

And

Cited: Treatment Advocacy Center (min: 7:40)

September 2013 Article:  Justifiable Homicides by Law Enforcement Officers:  What is the Role of Mental Illness?

Quote:

“…at least half of the people shot and killed by police each year in this country have mental health problems.”

And

Cited:  ABC News  abcnews.com NIGHTLINE (video clip)

Quote:

“These officers are experts in what’s called Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). … It’s all part of a pioneering program where the mentally ill are diverted out of jails and into treatment.”

And

Cited:  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)

April 29, 2014 Article: NAMI Calls on Congress to Promote Nationwide Expansion of Police Crisis Intervention Teams  (min: 8:45)

Quote:

“… 15 percent of law enforcement jurisdictions have adopted the program.”

Quote:

(re CIT in police) “ … taking that training is usually voluntary.  How can something so essential to your job, be voluntary?”

CONCLUSIONS: 

1. Using the criminal justice system to treat the mentally ill isn’t just ineffective; it’s expensive and dangerous.  The police are not trained, nor equipped in de-escalation techniques and this many times leads to the mentally ill being killed by police.

2. CIT with police departments should’ve been implemented long ago and needs to be mandated and expanded. 

2. The definition of “treatment” in this country falls short in the overall care and recovery of the mentally ill.  The forced drugging needs to be reexamined and pre-testing for medical efficacy, drug tolerance per individual, and a first psychotic break medical workup must happen to avoid misdiagnosing a medical illness that mimics as psychosis, and which a neuroleptic RX would be contra-indicated and could cause brain damage and create the very psychotic behavior trying to be quelled.

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6. The whole system needs a massive overhaul (min 9:10)

Cited:  Medicaid.gov

Quote:

“… wont’ be easy.  The public safety net for the mentally ill spans Medicaid, which is different across the country, eight federal agencies, who administer 112 different programs that in some way touch on mental health, AND the social service agencies in each of the fifty states.”

Quote:

“ Assertive Community Treatment, is designed to let those with serious mental illnesses by providing regular in-home visits and help coordinating assistance with things like housing and employment. “

Quote: Barbara Julius, ACSW (social worker), Director, OUTREACH

(2005)(min 10:00):

“What makes mental health might not just be a visit to your psychiatrist, it might mean having your entitlements in place, it might mean having your rent paid on time.  So instead of meeting with the person and talking about how they’re doing, how they feel, once or twice a month, what we do is EVERYTHING that it takes to keep people living in the community living independently.”

Cited: Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience

September 2005 Article:

Economic considerations associated with assertive community treatment and supported employment for people with severe mental illness

Quote:

“… [Assertive Community Treatment] services approximately pay for themselves.”

CONCLUSION:

That’s just one example.  There are many, disjointed others.  We, as a society have to figure out how to fund them, or model other countries in a more progressive approach.  It will take a major shift in current policy of forced drugging (which has resulted in a rise in mental illness) and build a new kind of hospital.  No more nursing homes with young mentally ill, no more homeless mentally ill, no more killing of the mentally ill in crisis by the police, no more criminalization and jail/prison of the mentally ill.  A NEW HOLISTIC, LONG-TERM HOSPITAL IS THE ANSWER.  It's humane, it's fiscally responsible, and it's TIME!!!!!

This isn’t going away.  It’s getting worse.  We have to change the trajectory.  It will make fiscal sense; it will save LIVES, families, and is the only compassionate approach.    

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