Posted on 08/21/2008 7:59:15 AM PDT by Chickensoup
Why isn't family REQUIRED to care for them?
It's too easy to load up government with this.
Our country didn't start out this way ... families and churches cared for this - not the government. Yes, I know, it might be an inconvenience to the family ... we are a narcissistic society and irresponsible as well.
Just a few dollars? Apparently Doc. Fuller is pimping for the drug companies. There is no shortage of teachers who aren't out there helping him to rope hyper boys onto Ritalin and Girls onto anti depressants.
Our country didn’t start out this way ... families and churches cared for this - not the government. Yes, I know, it might be an inconvenience to the family ... we are a narcissistic society and irresponsible as well
Are you kidding? Have you ever had a severely mentally ill person in your family? In the past they were killed or tortured or like today in prison. Our compassionate forefathers saw a need and developed Town Farms and Insane asylems to help these poor souls live so that they would not molest general society or be molested.
The current system is much more expensive with the patients either being ignored OR the have 24 hour personal care attendents sometimes even two at a time. Mental health care for the seriously ill is a tragic and growing industy.
My wife is a case manager for a mental health clinic in the county we live in. She is overloaded in her work as she has in excess of 60 cases she has to deal with each week. That means she has to see to it that those who need to go to the halfway house do so, that those who need to get back to the state hospital do so and those who need medical attention do so and those who need to be gottten out of jail-do so, and those who need to be counciled get there and those who havent had called in over a week be contacted..on and on.
In the last month, one got shot by the police-he hadnt been taking his meds at home and went over the edge. One got killed by her husband. One robbed a bank and got caught after taking the taxi back to his apartment (LOL) and a couple tried commiting suicied. Not to mention those who needed to be sent to the “unit” to get their “Tune Ups” didnt show.
She works over 12 hours a day and gets just over 32 grand a year for her job. A lot of these people should be in an managed care situtation much like old folks homes where they can come and go yet are watched so they take their happy meds or whatever...at least thats what she says. Yet the state wont cough up enough money to cover the costs of these people and they expect outfits like where my wife works to handle it for nothing.
For those of you on here that will scoff at handing out money to take care of these in a responsible way..would you let your three year old take care of him/herselves and not provide for them?
BTW. My wife has a BS in Business Administration and will quit this job ASAP as she is sick and tired of working the Chinese overtime. Thats doing overtime on salery for those of you that dont know. A PERSON WITH A DEGREE WORKING FOR a lousy 32 grand a year. But the cheap F^$#ers in this state will fall over themselves to fund a G&%dam hiking trail to nowhere for a bajillion dollars...AND HALF THE STATE IS DESERT..you can take off and walk straight cross country for the petes sake.
“The cost of the antipsychotic medication needed to treat his illness in 1972, and thus prevent the homicides, would have been a few dollars.” psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey
He is talking about haldol, thorazine and the like. they are the mainstays of the practice. This is not drug company pimping. This is the reality. Diabetics need insulin and psychotics need anti-psychotic medications. Prior to antipsychotics we tied them into straitjackets and let them scream.
YOu need to learn about this issue because it is in every community
Because they're nuts.
What happens when the family doesnt want anything to do with them? Then what? Leave em out on the street to cause havoc? Is that the way to do it?
That's an entirely different issue. This article is about severely dangerous, mentally ill people
In the long run it is less expensive to fund asylums and get this Communtiy based mental health off the streets. The costs in police, homelessness and different street programs would be eliminated. Having the mentally ill run around homeless is expensive. Not to mention the risk for them and the general publicn.
Why don’t more patients who need medication take it?
Because they’re nuts.
They are mentally ill. That means that they have POOR JUDGEMENT>
Why don’t more patients who need medication take it?
Because they’re nuts.
They are mentally ill. That means that they have POOR JUDGEMENT>
As someone who's family with such a member WHAT EXACTLY do you suggest we do in the case of a mentally disturbed family member who can't understand that they are ill, given that the state makes it virtually impossible to have them involuntarily committed for treatment?
That's what I said-they're nuts.
For the same reason my friend who has breast cancer feels that everyone else should pay for her treatments. Basically, "It's expensive."
People don't want to give up their creature comforts, by and large, and want other people to shoulder the cost. It's easier to imagine some greedy evil corporate bazillionaire than some regular joe who's got his own problems. It amazes me how people have become less and less self-reliant over the years.
It can be best summed up by a Simpsons quote, "Get someone else to do it."
The problem with someone who has schizophrenia and is not being treated with medication is that they are often impossible to help or even control. The patient does have rights as a human being, families cannot force-feed them their medications. Families cannot stop them from slipping into psychosis. If you are dealing with an adult with a mental illness who refuses to be treated with medications, the family can do very little about it... unless it can be proven that they are a possible danger to themselves or others. And that is a very difficult thing for a family to prove. It is generally only proven after the fact, after the patient has harmed himself or someone else.
Thank you!!!
The SMI people cant help it as they have an illness..and some are a danger to society sadly.
Maybe somebody here would care to tell me if they’d like to let a woman out on the streets who killed her baby and cut it up and flushed in down the toilet in a hotel room and not have anyplace where she could be watched and made sure she took her meds.
And believe me..there is just such a case in the USA..I’d get myself in trouble if I told you where. My wife took care of her. Its not in AZ.
nmh, I know that you speak sincerely. But you have, obviously, never faced this problem personally.
The families, despite their best efforts, CANNOT care for the severely mentally ill. These people will not accept help. They don’t think they need it.
We currently have a family member who feels on top of the world. He’s manic. He’s paranoid. He’s carrying a gun. We know it, and law enforcement knows it. He calls, but he doesn’t stay in one place for long.
Why is he out, you ask?
Because he’s just sane enough to fool the system. He told the last mental health pro who evaluated him that the gun was to shoot squirrels. He can calm himself enough to make minimal sense for a few minutes at a time. He’s learned to keep his mouth shut.
He won’t go for voluntary treatment. He gets violent and profane when it’s suggested.
He can’t be involuntarily committed till he’s judged a threat to himself or others. By that time, it may be too late.
And we, the family, will be blamed. Meanwhile, I keep my doors locked.
Careful judging till you’ve walked in the moccasins.
RepoGirl, you are wrong.
It’s not about money.
Please see my last post.
There’s insurance, and there’s family willing to pay. The severely mentally ill often will not accept treatment, voluntary or otherwise.
I would LOVE to see you work just one week in one of these places. You’d be eating your words in a second.
You’ve NO idea at all.
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