The Mental Health Thread

[Rocky Hillian]

Because.

[Rocky Hillian]

I know a great economic stimulus that would have a larger impact on the country. Re-open the mental health hospitals that have been slowly closing since Reagan. Putting people to work and helping those in need. Who could argue against that.

[Rocky Hillian]

I sort of wish we would start with mental health instead. We throw away too many lives and too many resources simply because nobody wants to talk about mental health care. If we made a fundamental shift in the way we think about mental health, the positive effects on our civilization would be enormous. Mental health issues lie at the root of numerous difficult, seemingly intractable problems in this country. Those problems remain intractable because everyone wants to pretend mental health isn't really a serious issue, that it's just a weakness or an excuse. You know, it's not uncommon for an individual with a mental illness or disorder to resist acknowledging that they have the problem at all. Of course, failure to acknowledge the problem makes addressing it nearly impossible. We as a nation are suffering from the same effects of our collective denial. If we would just hold still and begin to talk about it seriously, however, we could begin to make
real progress.

reposted from the other thread

[Scott Barker]

Kendra's Law is a good place to start.

[thanatos]

One of the great short comings of PPACA is that it didn't include a free annual mental wellness check with a licensed psychologist/psychiatrist.

[abalene]

I sort of wish we would start with mental health instead. We throw away too many lives and too many resources simply because nobody wants to talk about mental health care. If we made a fundamental shift in the way we think about mental health, the positive effects on our civilization would be enormous. Mental health issues lie at the root of numerous difficult, seemingly intractable problems in this country. Those problems remain intractable because everyone wants to pretend mental health isn't really a serious issue, that it's just a weakness or an excuse. You know, it's not uncommon for an individual with a mental illness or disorder to resist acknowledging that they have the problem at all. Of course, failure to acknowledge the problem makes addressing it nearly impossible. We as a nation are suffering from the same effects of our collective denial. If we would just hold still and begin to talk about it seriously, however, we could begin to make
real progress.

thing is, it isn't just one or the other. if anyone really wants this to ease up or stop, both will have to dealt with.

[pages]

Not only is treatment necessary, but the stigma attached to mental illness has to go away. I had a conversation on Sunday with a friend who sent a son into treatment on Saturday. One reason that they hadn't been able to get him to agree to go sooner was because of what it looked like to others to have him going into a mental hospital. That's not the case for cancer or diabetes or hypertension. Nonody says, how would it look if I went into the hospital to be treated for cataracts. But when it comes to mental illness folks freak out about others knowing. That has to change.

[ernie]

I must admit that, until I read "I am Adam Lanzas's mother" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...comm_ref=false I really had not given much thought to the mental illness issue.

[Smootz]

I hate that as soon as I hear something out of the mouth of our Governor I like (i.e. we need mental health to be a priority of the new legislative year), we get into shouting match about putting guns in classrooms.