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texasflower,

Thanks for your "take" on this... I agree with all you said.

Also, from personal experience, when my son started kindergarten, they gave him a twenty minute test and told me he had attention problems. I didn't want to believe this and treated him as a "normal" (meaning only children with good parents).

Guess what... he is severly ADHD; it became more obvious as the years and problems went by. He has been arrested three times for "sticky fingers" due to poor impulse control and more many details that need not be presented here including serious problems with school

Lastly, getting him help as a teenager was IMPOSSIBLE, even with good insurance. Too many kids and adults fall thru the cracks, while others are misdiagnosed and medicated without sufficient cause.

Also, as a child, I had some tendencies that would have pointed to bipolar many, many years before I was diagnosed. Could have saved me thousands of dollars, thousands of rough days, and hundreds of "bloopers".

I've always said the prisons are filled with ADD/bipolar/schitzophrenic (SP) people. I firmly believe this altho I don't have stats.

I think this was one of the items mentioned in the report. Would we rather have the prisons overflowing, or maybe evaluate and treat some of these folks to lead productive lives?

Just personal experience, but I do understand what this report is about. However, I would not agree to the extremist outcomes some posters have written and seriously doubt it would even come to that.

Thanks again texasflower. You have brought a semblance of reason throughout this thread, and I thank you.

Best to you, ba7

This is going to be a long post and I apologize for that upfront. Most of my comments are going to be directed at others that might be reading this out of concern or fear about what this issue might involve. I know that you understand all of this already.

Your post is excellent. Thank you for posting all of that.

There are so many people in similar situations that would benefit greatly from having comphrensive mental health evaluation and ongoing care.

You pointed out several areas in which some of this screening would be perfectly applied. In the schools if a child is presenting with behavioral or learning problems that has come to the attention of the school diagnostician, school psychologist or school nurse.

In a prison intake and detention services. Discharge planning by prison staff. Later on by probation officers or other referral agencies after discharge.

There are so many areas that this initiative could and should be applied.

Had you or your son had the option, this sort of thing could have changed both of your lives for the better.

I know that as a parent, you would have loved to be able to have help for your son. I suspect your heart was broken watching your child go through so much, and knowing that it was mostly due to a health matter.

As a loving parent, you tried to get him help, but it wasn't available to you, as you said.

This initiative has the potential to improve life for many, many people and the families that love them.

There is also the simple fact that with proper treatment, the vast majority of people are able to continue with their lives and be productive.

So, by providing care early and consistently, most people will actually be less of a tax payer burden, because they will be better able to get and hold a job. Many would then go to private health care through their employer and or be less dependent on things like food stamps, etc.

Many people don't think they would ever be in need of care themselves. You have shown that perfectly normal people in good loving homes may need assistance.

Besides you never know when circumstances might change in a heartbeat and a person may encounter a crisis that causes them to need help.

A prime and desperately real example of this is something that we have seen all too often in this country.

Remember the young paramedic that rescued "Baby Jessica"? The trauma of that event eventually led to his suicide.

The rescuers that went to work on the morning of September 11, 2001.

A couple of hours later, they were confronted with the sights of bodies torn to pieces on the sidewalk from those souls that preferred to jump to their deaths. The sight of a pregnant woman torn open by the impact, with her baby lying dead and torn beside her, still connected by the umbilical cord.

The agony of finding no survivors in the rubble once the towers collapsed. Recovering remains only.

The hundreds of funerals that the police and fire department personnel had to attend. Going back to work and seeing the rows of empty lockers belonging to co-workers that would not be returning.

The families of 9/11. It doesn't take much to see that many of those survivors have taken their grief and projected it into very unhealthy activities. Some of them have turned that into hatred and rage against the very people who have done the most to help them. (911 Commission Families)

The families of those that are now having to cope with the fact that their loved one has been decapitated.

Families of our fallen soldiers.

Wounded soldiers coping with life changing injuries.

Soldiers suffering from PTSD.

Unexpected mental and physical traumas can happen in a heart beat and without warning.

That means every single one of us is at risk for mental health challenges.

Most of these people have seen or will see a grief counselor or chaplain, etc. These people would provide screening simply by virtue of the incident in which they were involved.

Screening generally begins with someone like that, who under this initiative, can then offer additional services to the person. This initiative can make that process specific and streamlined. It is a tremendous alternative to just handing them a card with crisis hotline centers on it and telling them to be sure and tell "someone" if they need help. They will be able to know exactly who to call and how to go about getting help.

Also, "screening" doesn't involve a brooding psychiatrist with ink blots. Screening may be as simple as a grief counselor, pastor or other, who asks gentle and loving questions like "Are you experiencing trouble sleeping, eating, concentrating..." etc. The answers to those questions is often the basis for offering more extensive assistance and care.

For me, I was called to a scene that was supposed to be a routine "sick call".

When I arrived, the patient put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. I was close enough to him to be covered with his blood and brain tissue.

But, he continued to breathe, even with most of his head gone. As a paramedic, even though I knew he could never survive, by law I was required to treat him aggressively.

So, covered in that mess, I had to work him until I could get a physician on scene to pronounce him dead. I wiped the man's brain out of my eyes, intubated a gaping hole where a face used to be and got to work on him.

When that was over, I went back to the station, showered, changed uniforms and stayed at work.

But later, quite unexpectedly I had a very vivid flashback in which I heard the gunshot, smelled the gunshot and felt all of that blood and tissue on me all over again.

What did my employer do? They paid for me to go to a critical incident stress debriefing and a couple of follow ups. They even paid me for the time I spent there.

I never missed a day of work, I was not stigmatized in any way and a more serious problem was immediately averted.

There are so many on this board that can't see how people can be screened for mental health problems, unless it is forced.

This has been a long way to say that there is no provision in the initiative to force anyone to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Screening can be as simple as situations like those listed in which a significant risk of psychological trauma exists.

Offering a comprehensive health care initiative can save many minds and many lives.

In this age of terror, something like this is crucial.

But finally let me stress that nothing in any of the documents that have been provided or those that can be researched say ANYTHING about every American being tested.

Only that it should be AVAILABLE to every American that needs help.