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.
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.
Because they're nuts.
The same people that made people with Mental Illness reliant on institutions had no plan when they were discharged to the streets.
The movie Sling Blade was a perfect example
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117666/
It has improved a little because of group homes but this statement about Dr. Treffert sums it up best.
TORREY: Dr. Darold Treffert, a psychiatrist in Wisconsin, originally used the term. He kept track of the increasing number of deaths of individuals with serious mental illnesses who died from accidents, suicides, starvation, etc., because of the new laws making it difficult to treat them. Dr. Treffert wanted to emphasize the fact that the new laws were effective in protecting the person's civil liberties and their right to refuse treatment, but in doing so the laws put the person in danger. Dr. Treffert is one of only a few American psychiatrists who have spoken out forcefully regarding the abysmal job we are doing in providing appropriate care for individuals with severe mental illnesses.
This still is a problem largely ignored by the media. The rights of people with mental illness also impede the progress of people with mental illness and society in general.
I can say that after I moved to Kansas and started seeing a Christian psychiatrist, symptoms and side effects diminished to nothing. Granted my stress level is a lot less. The community in general seems more supportive and accepting.
My meds would be a thousand/month without insurance. A few are available as generic as of this year, which helps. I'm fortunate to have good insurance -- unlimited in-patient, pharmacy coverage. I've met many who couldn't afford it -- and could never break out of the system.
Don't say "we", Kemo Sabe. This egg was laid by the liberal chickens, and it's all theirs, despite the attempt in the article to drag conservatives into it. The conservatives might have voted in favor, but the "let'em all out" notion was thunk up by the liberals, and pushed into legislation by the liberals.
Not that I doubt this number, I would like to see the data to back it up.
We're told that a large percent of all homicides are committed by illegals.
Somehow the number together don't seem to jive or someone is pulling our legs.