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Mass Shootings and Mental Health Funding
I challenge everyone to stop and consider the plight of mental health professionals who are facing the tough times and trying to do the impossible of helping people who can't cope any longer. My heart breaks everytime I read of another trajedy of senseless killings. We need to demand a new level of funding from the public and private sectors to fund mental health services at levels needed in every community across this country. Public support is at a bear bones level and the private sector (insurance companies) are not reimbursing at all or at a below a break even level. We need to address this crisis now and see that our communities support mental health professionals who are at a breaking point of demands that exceed resources. Mad magazine had a cartoon back in my early years where a guy was holding up a sign that said "Support mental health or I'll kill you". This is our sad state of today where it seems everyone we hear of another mass killing or murders caused by people at their breaking point. I urge everyone to contact your government officials art every level to support and demand mental health services now! Your town or neighborhood could be next!
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Very timely call.
One of the reasons I am so intent on single payer health care is that if we fold everything together, we can set up a really integrated care system, which allows for prevention in addition to healing and which makes sure people do not fall between the cracks.
I could go on and on about both the plight of the mentally ill and the plight of mental health practicioners and the absence of community mental health coverage.
One of the reasons we have way too many people in prison in this country is the "criminalization of the mentally ill" - where people end up in the court system because they are not receiving care or medication or treatment - and end up breaking the law in some deluded or rageful or drug-addled state. It's a crime to deny treatment but instead to incarcerate individuals who, if placed in max security, are only going to get worse!
I commend your post!
April 7, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
TheraP...thanks for your thoughts and my wife is a LCSW in private practice and I know you are in the field as well. Single pay is the only real choice for all of us and I only hope it will happen as well.
April 7, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I truly would like to see this rec'd up! It's such a worthwhile post! :)
Love your avatar by the way!
April 7, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
This situation over the past month has gotten crazy....all these deaths by mass shootings. We need to help out as a people and really provoke some change. Hit up 99problems.org to see what they are doing to combat the current violence issue
April 7, 2009 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
"We need to demand a new level of funding from the public and private sectors to fund mental health services at levels needed in every community across this country."
I agree. If we can spend trillions rewarding criminals and killing people all over the world for no reason, surely we can spare a couple billion to help our own citizens and nurture a happier society.
April 7, 2009 7:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
We need not just the money but a complete revamping of how mental health is cared for and services are delivered. Piecemeal therapy works for the "worried well" who can access that care and have insurance or can pay out of pocket. It will never work for people who are psychotic or retarded or have other very complex disorders, which interrelate with physical problems. Compassionate care for emotional problems, as an integral part of health care, should be a right for all. And we need systems to make sure people in the greatest need do not fall through the cracks. Those in the greatest need are generally unaware of the seriousness of their problems or lack a social network to notice problems when they crop up. Our society has failed its most helpless and needy in so many ways!
April 7, 2009 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
A year ago they closed the only mental health facility in the area because of a lack of state funding. This facility served three counties. There are therapists in private practice, but this was the only resource for lower income uninsured people who needed help.
Just one less bomb for Baghdad and that clinic could have been fully funded for 3 years.
April 7, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rec'd, O1. How about we fund community mental health clinics and also examine from a national perspective the sources for our obvious societal distress? This seems to me to be something that (finally) fits the 'trickle down' theory rather than the other way around.
April 7, 2009 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great Post. Oh, and I love that avatar.
April 8, 2009 9:07 AM | Reply | Permalink