Dangerous lack of mental health care

sallylou

sallylou

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Two separate shootings in two different locations this week. Parents of each shooter had tried to access mental health care for the men.

The Associated Press: Pentagon shooter had a history of mental illness

The mother asked law enforcement to take this man to a mental health facility.

Father: accused school shooter suffers from schizophrenia - KWGN

The father had tried to access mental health care. Colorado ranks 50th in available beds in mental health treatment centers.

With more budget cuts, the problem is likely to get worse. It's tragic for everyone involved.
 
yes, there budget cut everywhere.. schools, road, medicare, even SSI (let's just hope cost of living get lower)

I question about the parents from the Pentagon shooting. Do they have legal rights to make their child get into mental health care? I don't think they can even access his record because he is a legal adult. I remember The biggest problem we had in VT shooting was that the shooter was a legal adult and college couldn't report to the parent about his mental health because of privacy rights. Even they couldn't do anything about it. some people felt that as long as the child is in college, they should be allow to report to the parents. This would include drinking and such. (kinda like making legal adult at 21 instead of 18).
 
"Family friend Reb Monaco said Kaye Bedell asked the officer to take him to a mental health facility, but that the son refused."

It wasn't that help wasn't available; it was that the guy refused it. It had nothing to do with budget cuts.

"There are no public records showing that 32-year-old Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood has been diagnosed with mental illness...

Eastwood said he didn't know how to help his son and couldn't afford treatment. He said his son visited a psychiatrist last year but the doctor couldn't help without money.

Authorities and experts acknowledge mental health care is difficult to find but say there are still ways to get help if parents about their options and advocate for their children."

We don't really know to what extent the father sought help for his son, or if his son, age 32 years, agreed to the help.

It's not always the money but the law that prevents them from getting help. These men were not minors and had not been judged incompetent or dangerous, so they couldn't be forced to get mental health help.
 
I am just going to add this to the discussion. Nidal Malik Hasan was a psychiatrist.

Fort Hood shooting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The accused perpetrator is Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major serving as a psychiatrist.
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I am curious why the current administration will not admit this was an act of terrorism.

Hasan is an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent. Accounts in the media have stated that he had expressed radical beliefs. Additionally, investigations before and after the shooting discovered e-mail communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, who later condoned and blessed the attack. After communications between the two were forwarded to FBI terrorism task forces in 2008, they determined Hasan was not a threat prior to the shooting and that his questions to al-Awlaki were consistent with medical research.
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ok ... all the red flags were there. I do not believe there is a lack of mental health resources, I believe there to be a lack of intervention from the authorities.
 
I noticed that some people who do get care, Sometimes medication tend to make people worst off because it is not the right kind or doses. So if anyone is going to get off or on of medications, they need to be monitored for awhile. So who knows, maybe this guy was just getting off his medication if he have been in clinical care before.
 
Lighthouse77 said:
I noticed that some people who do get care, Sometimes medication tend to make people worst off because it is not the right kind or doses. So if anyone is going to get off or on of medications, they need to be monitored for awhile. So who knows, maybe this guy was just getting off his medication if he have been in clinical care before.
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"His psychiatrist, J. Michael Nelson, said Bedell tried to self-medicate with marijuana, inadvertently making his symptoms more pronounced."

That was part of his problem.
 
Steinhauer said:
I am just going to add this to the discussion. Nidal Malik Hasan was a psychiatrist.

I am curious why the current administration will not admit this was an act of terrorism.
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Its an act of terrorism, just like Joseph Stack crashing his plane into the building is an act of terrorism. They both have clear political-religious agendas.
 
netrox said:
Its an act of terrorism, just like Joseph Stack crashing his plane into the building is an act of terrorism. They both have clear political-religious agendas.
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I absolutely agree. :thumb:
 
Reba, why are you so angry at the mentally ill? I have extended family members who are mentally ill. My aunt has tried to get one of them treatment for years. Unfortunately, some people will not stay on their medication because of their mental illness (primarily paranoia). The mentally ill live on the fringes of society. People only notice when one of them becomes violent. I know that mental illness is an uncomfortable subject and an unpopular cause. More compassion and less judgment would help the mentally ill.

BTW, this thread is about mental illness specifically. I started this thread to avoid hijacking your thread. Unfortunately, these cases ended in violent crimes. Now that the crimes have people's attention, discussing mental health treatment and protection of the mentally ill and society at large is a legitimate discussion.

Here's the latest information about the availability and quality of mental health care, both nationally and state by state:

http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Grading_the_States_2009/Overview1/Overview.htm
 
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I agree with SallyLou. Mental illness runs in my family also! But it's something they will not talk/discuss about! Guess it's too embarrassing to them, but it makes me upset when I ask questions, and get a "I don't remember, or don't know"....One of my own sisters went thru a horrible childhood and it affects her to this day. But she refused treatment.....She recently emailed me, telling me that she "carried it around on her shoulders for so long"...and that she has finally been able to let it go....years and years of suffering...

I also know of someone that was on Medicaid w/3 children....she committed several felonies, even Medicaid fraud, so they cut her off....she cannot receive any mental health counseling via Medicaid.....cannot get any help at all!....her family is destitute (poor),....

There are people walking around that are mentally ill and a danger to society, but don't know how or can't receive the care they need. They are shunned by their family/friends, it's terrible....

And those mental health clinics run by Medicaid/Medicare...are somewhat of a joke! Most want to "pump" you up with pills.....to get you out of the way, when in a lot of cases, all the person needs is a "listening ear" and someone who understands and gives imperative advise.

Some deafies have told me of their problems with Mental Health clinics. It's really sad!
 
I worked for 5 years in the administration department doing state billing for a counseling agency. We had 3 residential clinics that also did outpatient and then we had another 25 outpatient clinics. We did a variety of counseling, including marriage, children's issues (incest, ADD/ADHD and rape) as well as drug, alcohol, mental health and crisis intervention. In most cases that I saw, it was not that services were not available, but that if they had insurance, it would only cover a certain number of sessions and you couldn't get the meds renewed without another session. Another reason, was that the client just couldn't afford the co-pay for the sliding pay scale.

Yes, there were clients who only went to satisfy the courts, but the ones who were not on court mandated treatment just were limited either by insurance or finances. For a small agency, we still had over 200 LCSW's and MSW and Physchiatrists and Psychologists.

I no longer work there since we moved, but I do keep in touch, and they are busier than ever. Office hours are from 7am to 10pm 6 days a week just to make sure people get the treatment needed.
 
Also, there is an extreme shortage of qualified therapists for deaf or hard of hearing clients. Some states will not allow an interpreter in the sessions due to the privacy issues and the nature of the sessions and not very many therapists have any ASL training or knowledge.
 
KristinaB said:
Also, there is an extreme shortage of qualified therapists for deaf or hard of hearing clients. Some states will not allow an interpreter in the sessions due to the privacy issues and the nature of the sessions and not very many therapists have any ASL training or knowledge.
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Some deaf are not articulate enough communicate with their therapist because they were raised in spoken language environment and don't know ASL at all.
 
Lighthouse77 said:
Some deaf are not articulate enough communicate with their therapist because they were raised in spoken language environment and don't know ASL at all.
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true. I know there was a big issue in Missouri with one company that had a therapist who was approved on all insurance panels and knew ASL and was a CODA. She went into her field because of her parents. She had around 45 deaf clients between 3 office for this agency and the agency decided that she was catering to her clients needs too much by signing too much, so they fired her and all of her clients lost any treatment they could get.
 
I understand that many people have not experienced how difficult mental illness is for patients and their families. If a family says that a person has a mental illness, I believe them. People are unlikely to lie about that. It's a horrible stigma. Admitting that your loved one is not mentally well is very painful.

Mental health issues also include addictions, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, etc. Veterans often return with addictions and PTSD (my dad and uncles did from WWII). The human cost is staggering.
 
KristinaB said:
true. I know there was a big issue in Missouri with one company that had a therapist who was approved on all insurance panels and knew ASL and was a CODA. She went into her field because of her parents. She had around 45 deaf clients between 3 office for this agency and the agency decided that she was catering to her clients needs too much by signing too much, so they fired her and all of her clients lost any treatment they could get.
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That purely discrimination to the deaf
 
sallylou said:
I understand that many people have not experienced how difficult mental illness is for patients and their families. If a family says that a person has a mental illness, I believe them. People are unlikely to lie about that. It's a horrible stigma. Admitting that your loved one is not mentally well is very painful.

Mental health issues also include addictions, eating disorders, autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, etc. Veterans often return with addictions and PTSD (my dad and uncles did from WWII). The human cost is staggering.
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I totally agree and it seems like every family has someone with a mental illness.
 
Lighthouse, the fear of seeking help because of child custody is very common. It's part of the stigma that needs to be eliminated. Many "normal" people need mental health care during a divorce because it is such a stressful event.

Often the judge will order a psych evaluation and/or drug testing when a mental health issue exists. The children usually need a guardian ad litem to represent them in this situation.

Our local deaf center at a deaf church offers free counseling by a volunteer therapist. I wish that this service was widely available.
 
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