Hello Friends Imagin yourself going to the Dr with gash in your head about 4 inches long, to the bone and bleeding profusely. then the Dr says, " Oh my. What a shame. If that cut would have been just an inch longer we would be able to stitch you up. A cut on the head has to be 5 inches or more before we can help you. How about this one? You get an x-ray that reveals a tumor about the size of an orange. Your Dr says, Well, you are almost there. Just let that tumor get a little bigger, say, the size of a grapefruit, then we'll be able to wack that thing out of there. Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Of course it does and we all know that this would never happen in our medical system right? WRONG,WRONG, WRONG. This exact attitude is being inflicted on thousands of mentally ill people every day in America. I have not only seen this happen to hundreds of people during my time being involved with the mental health community but have actually experienced it myself.In most instances, one must reach a state of condition that renders oneself a clear and eminate danger to themselves or to someone else. I ask you all, on which side of this fence does insanity lie. Here is yet another true life nightmare of the way our mentally ill are being treated. If you feel inspired to try to do something about this travesty please let me know in this forum and I will be very happy to help you get started in the right direction. Please join us in advocating for a better system of mental health care and help us spread the message of hope to those who suffer, their friends and families and all those affected by a mental illness. Thank You Living with mental illness Posted 5/1/2006 9:28 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this By Pete Earley "Dad, how would you feel if someone you loved killed himself?" My college-age son, Mike, has stopped taking medication for the mental illness that was diagnosed a year ago, and he is having a relapse. He and I are speeding to an emergency room. Hang on son, I think. The doctors will help you. But after waiting four hours, a doctor appears and tells me it's illegal to treat Mike. He is not sick enough. He is not in "imminent danger," and because Mike now thinks "pills are poison," the doctor cannot forcibly medicate him under Virginia law. I'm told to bring him back if he tries to kill himself or someone else. No parent should watch what I see next. Mike sinks further into a mental abyss. Forty-eight hours later, he breaks into a stranger's house to take a bubble bath. The homeowners are away, but Mike is arrested and charged with two felonies. I've been a journalist 30 years and thought I knew a lot about jails, courtrooms and mental illness. But I was always on the outside looking in. I was so outraged about what happened to my son that I spent the next three years investigating America's mental health system. I went to Florida, to separate myself from Mike's case, and spent time in the Miami-Dade County jail. I followed psychotic prisoners through the courts, rode with cops, interviewed judges, attorneys, psychiatrists, mental health advocates, parents and persons like my son. System in disarray I discovered our system is in a shambles. Jails and prisons have become our new asylums. Deinstitutionalization — the haphazard closing of state mental hospitals and dumping of patients into the streets during the '70s and '80s — began the migration from hospital wards to jail cells. In 1955, about 559,000 Americans were patients in state hospitals. If you took the patient-per-capita ratio then and extrapolated it out to today, you'd expect to find 930,000 patients in those facilities. But there are fewer than 60,000. Where are the others? About 300,000 are in jails and prisons. An additional 500,000 are on probation. According to the Department of Justice, 16% of inmates in state correctional facilities say they have a mental condition or have spent a night in treatment. The largest public mental facility in the USA is the Los Angeles County jail. Lawsuits filed to protect patients from abuse in horrific state hospitals created legal barriers that are now preventing parents and other loved ones from intervening until it is too late, just as they did in Mike's case. A shameful lack of community services, including treatment programs and housing, also are to blame. In Miami, I saw homeless men with chronic schizophrenia arrested for trespassing, jailed, released untreated and arrested again days later. They are stuck in a vicious revolving door. No one is immune Mental illnesses are chemical imbalances that affect how nerve cells in the brain send and receive messages. They can strike anyone. Nothing in our family's history hinted that a debilitating disorder loomed ahead. And Mike did nothing to bring this sickness on himself. Sadly, we are making jails a core part of our mental health care network. Jail officials are building separate facilities for psychotic prisoners. In effect, we are reconstructing the dreaded "warehouse" asylums from our past inside our jails. Jails are not safe places for a person with a mental illness, and the sick shouldn't have to become criminals to get help. Most can get better. Treatment works in 80% of cases — if it is available. Incredibly, we are continuing to shut down psychiatric wards in favor of jails. My state, Virginia, has lost 84% of its psychiatric hospital beds since 1955. Why are we choosing cells over beds? The cost of a psychiatric bed exceeds $500 per day. The cost of a Virginia jail is $89 per day. My son is back on his medication. But now he faces the stigma of having a mental illness and a criminal record. That's wrong. Few of us worry we'll wake up with a mental illness. But what if the phone rings and it's someone telling you about your sister, your daughter, your mother — your son? I've been on the inside looking out now. It is frightening. Pete Earley's book, Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, was published this month. Posted 5/1/2006 9:28 PM ET May a smile follow you to sleep each night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and be there waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health And Political Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=9637 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=13254 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Opportunities Probuilders has to be the best opportunity on the entire internet. Here is my link. Go check it out for yourself. http://billyvan.probuilderplus.com/

Hi William, Very good reading as you explained it all very well. Also, males in jail get counseling because they many times are a threat to society. Women however, do not get counseling because they are only a danger to themselves. Their crimes are less violent (theft, prostitution, etc.)

Hello Mary Thank you for stopping by and posting your viewpoints. I am not sure about the statistics on counseling in prisons. I have done a little research on it but haven't been able to find anything really conclusive yet. I will keep looking though. One thing for sure though is that more counseling prior to going to prison would be beneficial. Particularly with regard to those with a mental illness. There are so many people with a mental ilness in prison that really shouldn't be there. I have always believed that our school systems should concentrate more on life skills and less on acedemics. Many states are beginning to realize the importance of therapy and counseling due to the fact that they just can't afford to support so many prisoners. Like the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Thanks again Mary and plese come back again soon. May a smile follow you to sleep each night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and be there waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health And Political Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=9637 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=13254 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Opportunities Probuilders has to be the best opportunity on the entire internet. Here is my link. Go check it out for yourself. http://billyvan.probuilderplus.com/

HI Bill, Couldn't agree more with you , I have seen the mental illness system from the inside also and it's not good! People who do end up in jail are medicated but not treated properly,and psych wards aren't all that good either alot of times. Have a good day! Carla :)

Hi Carla Thank You so much for stopping by and posting your thoughts here. In your post you mentioned our two main sources of treatment for mental health. Psychiatric hospitals and jails. Unfortunately there are more people with mental illness in jail than there are in treatment. Most estimates claim that about 16% of our prison population suffers with a serious mental illness. Here is the lastest statistical report that I can find on our prison population in the U.S. U.S. Prison Population Rose 2.3 Percent in 2004 April 25, 2005 Email Print Subscribe Research Summary The United States continues to lead the world in the proportion of its citizens behind bars, and the prison population continues to grow, Reuters reported April 24. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 2.131 million Americans were incarcerated last year, up 2.3 percent from 2003 and representing 726 of every 100,000 citizens -- far more than any other democracy. Further, the report showed, 12.6 percent of black males in their late 20s were in prison, compared to 3.6 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males. "Unless we promote alternatives to prison, the nation will continue to lead the world in imprisonment," said Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute. Recidivism was blamed for much of the growth in the prison population, along with mandatory sentences, notably for drug and property crimes. "We have to be concerned about an overloaded system which sentences many offenders quickly and is not doing a good job of sorting out people who should be incarcerated from people for whom other responses would produce better, less expensive results," said Malcolm Young, executive director of the Sentencing Project. End Of Article Now, 16% of the prison population equates to 340,960 people behind bars with a serious mental illness. Now consider the fact that 80% of all people with a mental illness can be treated successfully with medication and therapy. This means that there are 272,768 people in prison who could be leading normal, productive lives. These are potential, tax payers, potential fathers, mothers, employees, or any other kind of valuable citizens within our society. How can we, as a civilized nation, justify our present system of mental health care or the prison system for that matter. This neglect of people with mental illness doesn't exist just here in America either. It is the same story all over the world. Here is a report from South Africa on this very same situation. The only real difference between South Africa and the U.S. is that we have a larger percentage of our population behind bars. Mental illness common Between 1% and 3% of the South African population are likely to suffer from a mental health problem severe enough to require hospitalisation. And the lives of one in five South Africans are significantly affected by a mental disorder. Nearly 20% of high school students a year think about fatally harming themselves. Advertisement This is according to statistics released by the Department of Health. The Mental Health Information Centre (MHIC) adds that roughly 25% of all general practitioners' patients are ill due to psychiatric rather than general medical conditions. Mental disorders have a significant negative social and economical impact on South African society. According to the MHIC, the costs of alcohol abuse through health and medical expenses, lost productivity, violence and crime, are more than R5 billion each year. The costs of other mental disorders, particularly when they are diagnosed late, are at least as high as those for substance abuse. In addition to this, there are the human costs of mental disorders e.g. individual suffering, marital disruption, and family breakdown. Globally the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 400 million people alive today suffer from mental or neurological disorders or from psychosocial problems such as those related to alcohol and drug abuse. Mental illness causes extensive disability in rich and poor countries alike, and is increasing. Unipolar depression, alcohol use, bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder were among the ten leading causes of disability world-wide in 1998. Major depression was ranked fifth in the ten leading causes of the global disease burden in 1998. Medical researchers have gained important new insights into the causes of mental disorders and have developed new and effective treatments for these conditions. Early diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders can lead to rapid recovery and can substantially reduce economic and personal costs of illness. The tragedy is that many people who can be helped do not receive treatment. Why is care that is known to be affordable and effective not provided? WHO mentions the following main reasons: the low propriety generally given to mental health, the traditional centralisation of mental health services, the poor application of proven strategies and the stigma of mental illness. The MHIC adds that one of the greatest obstacles to preventing mental illness, and improving services and treatment, is ignorance. Psychiatric Disability Awareness month aims to focus the attention on mental illness and thereby to reduce ignorance. (Ilse Pauw, Health24) Related Articles Post a question to Cybershrink. Facts about mental ilness End Of Article Well, there you have it Carla. You are correct in your analogy of the situation. Our mental health system is failing us horribly and immediate change is needed. This is a very important issue to think about while heading out to the polls this upcomming election day in Nov. Take care now Carla and I wish you well my Friend. Please do stop back again. I have a feeling that you have a lot more to say and the rest of the world needs to hear about it. May a smile follow you to sleep each night,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and be there waiting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health And Political Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=9637 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=13254 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=11791 Business Opportunities Probuilders has to be the best opportunity on the entire internet. Here is my link. Go check it out for yourself. http://billyvan.probuilderplus.com/