Goes without saying, this is going to get much worse.
But in the end we’ll all be saved by nobamacare.
Your Obama voter... I guess suicide qualifies for an EMTALA payment.
Confidential to Dr. William Sullivan: welcome to The New Frontier.
A lot if these people have healthcare coverage or currently would qualify for healthcare coverage under Medicaid because they have little or no income. Welcome to obamacare, ‘healthcare’ coverage w/o access to proper healthcare.
Duh. It must be getting cold in Chi-town.
There was an excellent book written in 1973, "Stations of the Lost" by Jacqueline Wiseman that described how the skid row alcoholic (now called "homeless") used the various social agencies as survival mechanisms. It would apply even more so today. They developed a lifestyle of following "the loop" from Skid row to city jail to county jail to county mental hospital to treatment center to shelter and back to the street. Most of them only spent about a third of their time on the street, usually depending on the seasonal weather.
These various agencies designed as means of social control are used as means of survival. If the person is a vet you can throw various VA bennies into the mix.
Want to stay in the most expensive hotel in town? Head to the ER and tell them you’re suicidal. Three squares, clean bed, nurses waiting on you...
Want to stay in the most expensive hotel in town? Head to the ER and tell them you’re suicidal. Three squares, clean bed, nurses waiting on you...
I thought it said “FR” for a second, well close enough.
Just a bunch of folks preparing to vote for Paul.
Can’t be. There is a LAW in Mass where EVERYONE has health insurance.
I’ve been at the doctor gig since 1973, and I had my psychiatry training at public hospitals in Brooklyn.
All discussions about this subject ignore most of the facts:
1) There are a lot of crazy people, and their numbers are increasing
2) A lot of community organizing-type agitation makes crazy people worse
3) All the state hospitals, which housed millions of crazy people in 1955, are closed
4) There is not enough money on the planet to provide all the crazy people with outpatient treatment.
Start there if you want to discuss solutions.
Oops, for a moment I thought the title said “Mentally Ill Flood FR...”
Illinois is in need of a tax increase!
I think the best all-round solution is for states to build low cost managed care barracks for the non-dangerous mentally ill.
As a good example of such a program whose primary goal is to save the taxpayers money, Seattle set up a hotel for 75 confirmed alcoholics.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002684566_eastlake15m.html
The bottom line is that it saved the taxpayers a huge amount of money, it got the alcoholics out of the gutter and off the street, and drastically reduced police and emergency room costs as well.
The largest group of people who are mentally ill all share the same problem: chronic and incapacitating depression. These are the people who would benefit most from such a barracks.
Oddly enough, the mentally ill who are depressed are rather low maintenance compared to many, and are generally satisfied with minimal needs, such as a bed, shower, food and water, and clean clothing. But it is very hard for them to earn a living or perform extended tasks. Some respond very well to antidepressant treatment, but others do not.
Yet concentrating them would save a lot of money, with a more institutional economy of scale.