Home
 Articles on Mental Illness
|
|
 | | |
From Time Magazine - 1/1/09
The Mystery of Borderline Personality Disorder
Doctors used to have poetic names for diseases. A physician would speak of consumption because the illness seemed to eat you from within. Now we just use the name of the bacterium that causes the illness: tuberculosis. Psychology, though, remains a profession practiced partly as science and partly as linguistic art.
Because our knowledge of the mind's afflictions remains so limited, psychologists--even when writing in academic publications--still deploy metaphors to understand difficult disorders. And possibly the most difficult of all to fathom--and thus one of the most creatively named--is the mysterious-sounding borderline personality disorder (BPD). University of Washington psychologist Marsha Linehan, one of the world's leading experts on BPD, describes it this way: "Borderline individuals are the psychological equivalent of third-degree-burn patients. They simply have, so to speak, no emotional skin. Even the slightest touch or movement can create immense suffering."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1870491,00.html
____________________________________________________
From Newsweek
Moody or Mentally Ill?
Signs of mental illness often occur during a time of typical teen turmoil
John Hill was a typical teenager in many ways: He started smoking when he was in high school, which upset his mother, and he spent a lot of time in his room alone, staying up until 5 in the morning playing video games. He went to school but often signed himself out sick after a couple of hours, and his grades plummeted.
When his mother asked what was wrong, he told her to leave him alone.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/172031/page/1
__________________________________________________
From Time Magazine
Why Do the Mentally Ill Die Younger?
Cynthia Scott is your average health-conscious 56-year-old. She watches what she eats, drinks lots of water and takes a multivitamin every morning. She goes for frequent walks and visits her doctor regularly for checkups, including cholesterol and diabetes screenings.
Scott also has schizoaffective bipolar disorder, a mental illness she keeps in check with a low dose of Zyprexa. If you were to ask Scott, she would say she is a healthy person overall. So she was shocked when the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) published a study two years ago called Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness. The report analyzed data from 16 states and found that, on average, people with severe mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population. "Hearing that made me so sad," says Scott. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1863220,00.html
_________________________________________________
From the New York Times
Strangers May Cheer You Up, Study Says
How happy you are may depend on how happy your friends’ friends’ friends are, even if you don’t know them at all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/health/05happy.html?_r=1
________________________________________________
From Time Magazine
Sen. Pete Domenici on Mental Health
When Congress approved the $700 billion rescue plan, it also passed one of the most significant mental-health bills in U.S. history — the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008. It requires group insurance plans to cover mental illnesses the same way as physical ones (no more higher co-pays, deductibles and limits on hospital stays). For more than a decade, Senator Peter Domenici pioneered the fight for such legislation. Last year, the 76-year-old Republican announced he suffers from a degenerative brain disease and would not seek another term. One of his final votes led to the bill's long-awaited passing. TIME spoke with Sen. Domenici about the legislation's history, the state of mental health care in the U.S. and his hopes for the future.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1848887,00.html
______________________________________
From Newsweek
Silent Demons
Schizophrenia is hard to treat but research provides new hope.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/158762/page/1
You're a senior in high school, sitting in math class, when suddenly a voice from the loudspeaker tells you the CIA has killed your parents and replaced them with impostors. Days later you notice strangers watching you. In fact, they are listening to your thoughts. No one can convince you that your ideas are irrational and, because you don't feel ill, you refuse to see a doctor. Instead, you tell a friend you will foil the conspiracy by committing suicide. Hours later, the police arrive to take you to a hospital.
_________________________
From MSNBC
Heart patients need screenings for depression
High risk prompts American Heart Association's new recommendation
DALLAS - Heart patients should be regularly screened for signs of depression, the American Heart Association recommended Monday.
Depression is about three times more common in heart attack survivors and those hospitalized with heart problems than the general population, according to the recommendations published in the journal Circulation. The authors said only about half of heart doctors say they treat depression in their patients — and not all those diagnosed with depression are treated.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26944814
______________________________
From Newsweek
HEALTH FOR LIFE
Sad Brain, Happy Brain
What cognitive neuroscience is uncovering about the fascinating biology behind our most complex feelings. As it turns out, love really is blind.
The brain is the mind is the brain. One hundred billion nerve cells, give or take, none of which individually has the capacity to feel or to reason, yet together generating consciousness. For about 400 years, following the ideas of French philosopher René Descartes, those who thought about its nature considered the mind related to the body, but separate from it. In this model—often called "dualism" or the mind-body problem—the mind was "immaterial," not anchored in anything physical. Today neuroscientists are finding abundant evidence of an idea that even Freud played with more than 100 years ago, that separating mind from brain makes no sense. Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist-neuroscientist Eric Kandel stated it directly in a watershed paper published in 1998: "All mental processes, even the most complex psychological processes, derive from operations of the brain."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/158754
____________________________________________
From the New York Times
The Bi | polar Puzzle
When Claire, a pixie-faced 6-year-old in a school uniform, heard her older brother, James, enter the family’s Manhattan apartment, she shut her bedroom door and began barricading it so swiftly and methodically that at first I didn’t understand what she was doing. She slid a basket of toys in front of the closed door, then added a wagon and a stroller laden with dolls. She hugged a small stuffed Pegasus to her chest. “Pega always protects me,” she said softly. “Pega, guard the door.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/magazine/14bipolar-t.html?hp
_______________________________________________________
From Public Radio
Jailing the Mentally Ill
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/mentally_ill/index.html
____________________________________________________----
From US News and World Report
Mental Health Courts
How special courts can serve justice and help mentally ill offenders
By Emma Schwartz
Posted February 7, 2008
Corrected 2/8/08: In an earlier version of this story, the name of Judge John Zottola was misspelled.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/02/07/mental-health-courts.html?PageNr=1
PITTSBURGH—Judge John Zottola's courtroom often feels more like a kindergarten award ceremony than part of the criminal justice system. Every Thursday on the fifth floor of a Romanesque-style courthouse, defendants shuffle to a podium to receive compliments, encouragement, and applause, whether it's for sticking to their treatment, wearing a nice outfit, or staying clean and sober. Even defendants who've slipped up on probation are unlikely to be thrown back in jail. Instead, most face a stern but kind warning, along with orders for more rigorous treatment or reporting schedules. "Don't make me look bad," Zottola tells them.
__________________________________
From Newsweek
JUSTICE
Cops and the Mentally Ill
How police can better handle emotionally disturbed citizens.
By Eugene O'Donnell | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 31, 2008 | Updated: 9:17 a.m. ET Jul 31, 2008
copy and paste in to address bar: http://www.newsweek.com/id/149630/page/1
Barely concealing his anger, Chaplain Thomas Nangle told an overflow funeral mass for Chicago policeman Richard Francis that the 60-year-old officer did not give his life in the line of duty—rather, it was "taken" from him.
Days before, on July 2, Francis, a 27-year veteran of the force, responded to a call steps from the police station where he was assigned. An emotionally disturbed person—EDP in police parlance—had fought with another passenger on a city bus. Before Francis could calm the woman, she grabbed his gun and shot him in the head. All too predictably, family members of the woman, Robin Johnson, told reporters that they had tried to get the woman help as her life slipped downhill.
----------------------------
From the San Francisco Chronicle
PTSD leaves physical footprints on the brain
Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2008
At a recent conference for some of the area's leading neurologists, San Francisco physicist Norbert Schuff captured his colleagues' attention when he presented colorful brain images of U.S. soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/26/MNH611UUP5.DTL
________________________________
From the Epoch Times
Living With Schizophrenia
When you accept your destiny, a peace can descend on your existence.
From The Epoch Times by Austin Mardon, November 2, 2007
People often ask me a simple question: Why, in their eyes, not mine, do I seem to function so well with schizophrenia? My answer is always that I have never consciously decided to quit taking my meds.
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-25/61187.html
__________________________________________
From the Village Integrated Services Agency (National Mental Health Association of Greater Los Angeles)
Submitted by Liz Mims
Hope and Schizophrenia
www.village-isa.org/index.htm
Scroll down to Desserts....Village Writings...to Dr. Mark's page & scroll down to "Hope & Schizo..."
__________________________________________________________________________-
From the New York Times
Sunday, June 15
From the Elusiveness of Schizophrenia, New Clues to Treatment
By BENEDICT CAREY
http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-schizophrenia-ess.html
The people who suffer from schizophrenia are hardly the only ones confounded by its symptoms. Scientists are baffled, too, and despite years of study they’ve had little success in explaining how the disorder develops, in whom, and why.
_________________________________________________-
From Time Magazine
Monday, June 9th
Purple Hearts for Psychic Scars?
For every solder killed or physically wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, some 10 others come home psychically scarred. The Pentagon has diagnosed roughly 40,000 troops with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since 2003, and tens of thousands of others are dealing with it on their own or ultimately will be diagnosed.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812757,00.html?cnn=yes
(NOTE: This is a big deal! Purple hearts are for wounded soldiers, they are finally going to recognize PTSD as a war wound)
From The Fresno Bee
May 19, 2008
Visalia officers training in mental health. Purpose is to defuse confrontations, get people help they need.
By Tim Bragg / The Fresno Bee05/18/08 22:18:26VISALIA --
Police officers are not psychologists, but they are being called upon increasingly to deal with the mentally ill, law enforcement and mental health experts say.
Because of this trend, Tulare County law enforcement and mental health officials are teaming up to give officers more advanced training in dealing with the mentally ill with an eye toward diffusing confrontations and directing patients to the proper resources.
The first training session for officers begins today, said Dr. Cheryl Duerksen, director of the county's mental health services. It will be conducted by mental health professionals from the Tulare County Department of Mental Health, Kaweah Delta Medical Center and the local mental health community.
The first session will include officers from the Visalia Police Department and deputies from Tulare County Sheriff's Department. It will cover topics including types of mental illness, techniques for dealing with patients who wish to harm themselves or others, and how to diffuse tense situations before they reach a confrontation, Duerksen said.
"A problem that officers often encounter is they will come into contact with a client who is suicidal or has the potential for violence," Duerksen said. "We want to train first responders to talk through the situation, to be able to put the client at ease."
Visalia police plan to eventually train about 20 officers, which will allow the department to form a crisis-response team to deal with emergency situations involving the mentally ill, Sgt. Jim Carr said. The goal is to have an officer with the training respond when officers in the field encounter a mentally ill person in a crisis situation, or where there is a possibility the person may harm someone.
Carr said Visalia officials hope the crisis response team can reduce the number of repeat contacts that officers have with some suffering from mental illness. Its creation was a priority of Police Chief Bob Carden. Officers will concentrate on making sure the patients they deal with are receiving the treatment they need, so contacts with police can be reduced.
The department hopes the training will lead to a better understanding of mental health issues, giving officers more information than what they receive in their police academy classes or what they learn through experience.
"Mental illness is an illness like any other," Carr said. "It's not something people choose to have."
Duerksen said the idea for the training came first from an advisory board made up of community representatives looking into what could be done to increase mental health care in the area.
The training program being used in Tulare County was first tried by police in Memphis about 15 years ago after the shooting of a mentally ill man by police, Duerksen said. One of the goals of the training is to help decrease the number of arrests and uses of force on the mentally ill.
Another goal is to increase trust between police and the mentally ill. Both Carr and Duerksen acknowledged that some patients have negative impressions of the police because of negative experiences.
Like many areas of the country, Tulare County and the San Joaquin Valley are seeing more contacts between the police and the mentally ill, officials say. Duerksen said several factors, including changes in the way patients are treated and problems with access to care, have helped to drive such contacts nationwide.
The reporter can be reached at tbragg@fresnobee.com or(559) 622-2417.
__________________________________________________________________________-
From Newseek
May 18, 2008
Welcome to Max’s World
Bipolar disorder is a mystery and a subject of medical debate. But for the Blakes, it's just reality.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/137517
_________________________________________________
From the Visalia Times-Delta
May 1, 2008
Shooting shows need for mental health care
The recent shooting at Roosevelt High School in Fresno, my alma-mater, was not surprising. Violent? Yes. Surprising? No. There is no campus police officer who wants to kill the students they are there to protect.
Anyone who works in education or the health career field, however, knows that there is a tremendous shortage of mental health-care services and professionals in the Central Valley.
Every day in our Valley, children and adults deal with a host of mental issues including, but not limited to depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive disorder, anorexia/bulimia, just to name a few.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in America. Many of these illnesses go untreated due to lack of money or insurance for doctor visits or medications, transportation issues, and in many cases, denial.
As a teacher, I have dealt with students who come to school and also miss a lot of school due to being treated at mental hospitals, are suicidal, depressed, undergo tremendous stress and have family problems or drug problems.
As an EMT, our company transports on average, 5 patients per week, sometimes many more, to facilities that deal specifically with mental health issues, mainly due to the lack of services here in our immediate area.
Why the problem? There are numerous reasons, but back in the 1970s, California began emptying its mental hospitals with the promise that patients would be treated in their local communities and the state would send the money it saved to help the counties finance the programs.
That only lasted into the first budget crisis of the early 1970s, and funds for mental health services have been shrinking at all levels since.
Mental disorders can be inherited. It is important for families to research and discuss the subject of mental disease that is in their families, but most find it uncomfortable and shameful to discuss such issues.
We, as a community, must take action to care for these patients and educate their families. We must pressure our community leaders and health-care professionals to recruit and hire qualified professionals to serve our area.
We need to educate our community about the services that are currently available. We need to provide easy access to these services, regardless of availability to pay.
Ignoring the problem offers no solutions; it only exacerbates it. We are all victims of a system that is incredibly broken, and I am afraid that if we don't act immediately, we will see more violence in our community, not just at a high school.
Dave Rodgers is a Certified Health Education Specialist, E.M.T., and teacher at Golden West High School in Visalia.
__________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle
April 24, 2008
Attorney leading suit a veteran in battling VA
Gordon Erspamer, the attorney who brought the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs that went to trial this week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is a big, unresponsive government agency's worst nightmare.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/24/BA3K10AIB1.DTL
_______________________________________________
From MSNBC
April 13, 2008
A year after Va. Tech, helping troubled students
Campus killings changed how colleges deal with mental health problems
The rampage carried out nearly a year ago by a deranged Virginia Tech student who slipped through the mental health system has changed how American colleges reach out to troubled students.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24055987
_____________________________________________________________
From Time (in partnership with CNN)
A Memoir of Schizophrenia - An interview with Elyn Saks. Elyn Saks has a graduate degree from Oxford, a law degree from Yale, and a tenured professorship at the University of Southern California - an schizophrenia.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1656592,00.html
________________________________________________
From MSNBC
February 26, 2008
Blood test could reveal bipolar disorder
Method that could diagnose, assess patients also raises ethical question
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337532/
From the New York Times
February 24, 2008
Daring to Think Differently About Schizophrenia
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/business/24drug.html?em&ex=1204002000&en=6a0e8fe7296833ff&ei=5087%0A
NORTH WALES, Pa. — SCIENTISTS who develop drugs are familiar with disappointment — brilliant theories that don’t pan out or promising compounds derailed by unexpected side effects. They are accustomed to small steps and wrong turns, to failure after failure — until, in a moment, with hard work, brainpower and a lot of luck, all those little failures turn into one big success.
_______________________________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle
January 28, 2008
Slaying on Russion Hill
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/01/29/BAIKUNUH4.DTL
It was a surprise to hear gunfire up among the upscale apartments and condominiums on Russian Hill, a shock to see a panhandler waving a knife, and an absolute stunner to hear that when police fired on the man they killed him. Everyone would agree that it was a terrible, scary, unfortunate tragedy.
But there was one part of it that didn't surprise those familiar with life on the street: the announcement by police that the man had mental health problems.
___________________________________________
From the New York Times:
January 27,2008
War Torn Part III - A series of articles and multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home.
In More Cases, Combat Trauma Is Taking the Stand
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/us/27vets.html?hp
___________________________________________
From the Washington Post:
December 29, 2007
Law raises issues of states’ reach in patient care
Debate swirls over rules allowing mentally ill to be forced into treatment
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122901622.html
___________________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
November 13, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/13/MN3ST0DCQ.DTL&hw=San+Francisco+Behavioral+Health+court+Huge+Success&sn=001&sc=1000
Special court in S.F. offers hope and help to those short on both
Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/13/07
As debate rages over how to solve San Francisco's seemingly intractable homeless problem, city leaders, academic researchers and even some formerly homeless people themselves say progress is being made every Thursday afternoon inside Department 15 at the...
___________________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Sunday, November 4, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
Rights of mentally ill street people thwart efforts to prevent harm
C.W. Nevius
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/04/MNI4T5L3S.DTL
_________________________________________________________
From Time Magazine:
De-Criminalizing Mental Illness
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1651002,00.html
___________________________________________
From the New York Times Magazine:
MAGAZINE | March 25, 2007
Can You Live With the Voices in Your Head?
By DANIEL B. SMITH
Auditory hallucinations have long been understood as a sign of severe mental illness. For some, that’s part of the problem.
_______________________________
NAMI Tulare County
Location: Visalia, CA
93278-3655
Phone: 559-732-NAMI (6264
Fax: (559) 627-1306
Email: namirn@sbcglobal.net
Web Page: www.nami.org/sites/tularecounty
The law and the mentally ill
From Public Radio
Jailing the Mentally Ill
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/mentally_ill/index.html
____________________________________________________----
From US News and World Report
Mental Health Courts
How special courts can serve justice and help mentally ill offenders
By Emma Schwartz
Posted February 7, 2008
Corrected 2/8/08: In an earlier version of this story, the name of Judge John Zottola was misspelled.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/02/07/mental-health-courts.html?PageNr=1
PITTSBURGH—Judge John Zottola's courtroom often feels more like a kindergarten award ceremony than part of the criminal justice system. Every Thursday on the fifth floor of a Romanesque-style courthouse, defendants shuffle to a podium to receive compliments, encouragement, and applause, whether it's for sticking to their treatment, wearing a nice outfit, or staying clean and sober. Even defendants who've slipped up on probation are unlikely to be thrown back in jail. Instead, most face a stern but kind warning, along with orders for more rigorous treatment or reporting schedules. "Don't make me look bad," Zottola tells them.
__________________________________
From Newsweek
JUSTICE
Cops and the Mentally Ill
How police can better handle emotionally disturbed citizens.
By Eugene O'Donnell | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 31, 2008 | Updated: 9:17 a.m. ET Jul 31, 2008
copy and paste in to address bar: http://www.newsweek.com/id/149630/page/1
Barely concealing his anger, Chaplain Thomas Nangle told an overflow funeral mass for Chicago policeman Richard Francis that the 60-year-old officer did not give his life in the line of duty—rather, it was "taken" from him.
Days before, on July 2, Francis, a 27-year veteran of the force, responded to a call steps from the police station where he was assigned. An emotionally disturbed person—EDP in police parlance—had fought with another passenger on a city bus. Before Francis could calm the woman, she grabbed his gun and shot him in the head. All too predictably, family members of the woman, Robin Johnson, told reporters that they had tried to get the woman help as her life slipped downhill.
_________________________________________________-
From Time Magazine
Monday, June 9th
Purple Hearts for Psychic Scars?
For every solder killed or physically wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, some 10 others come home psychically scarred. The Pentagon has diagnosed roughly 40,000 troops with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since 2003, and tens of thousands of others are dealing with it on their own or ultimately will be diagnosed.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812757,00.html?cnn=yes
(NOTE: This is a big deal! Purple hearts are for wounded soldiers, they are finally going to recognize PTSD as a war wound)
_____________________________
From The Fresno Bee
May 19, 2008
Visalia officers training in mental health. Purpose is to defuse confrontations, get people help they need.
By Tim Bragg / The Fresno Bee05/18/08 22:18:26VISALIA --
Police officers are not psychologists, but they are being called upon increasingly to deal with the mentally ill, law enforcement and mental health experts say.
Because of this trend, Tulare County law enforcement and mental health officials are teaming up to give officers more advanced training in dealing with the mentally ill with an eye toward diffusing confrontations and directing patients to the proper resources.
The first training session for officers begins today, said Dr. Cheryl Duerksen, director of the county's mental health services. It will be conducted by mental health professionals from the Tulare County Department of Mental Health, Kaweah Delta Medical Center and the local mental health community.
The first session will include officers from the Visalia Police Department and deputies from Tulare County Sheriff's Department. It will cover topics including types of mental illness, techniques for dealing with patients who wish to harm themselves or others, and how to diffuse tense situations before they reach a confrontation, Duerksen said.
"A problem that officers often encounter is they will come into contact with a client who is suicidal or has the potential for violence," Duerksen said. "We want to train first responders to talk through the situation, to be able to put the client at ease."
Visalia police plan to eventually train about 20 officers, which will allow the department to form a crisis-response team to deal with emergency situations involving the mentally ill, Sgt. Jim Carr said. The goal is to have an officer with the training respond when officers in the field encounter a mentally ill person in a crisis situation, or where there is a possibility the person may harm someone.
Carr said Visalia officials hope the crisis response team can reduce the number of repeat contacts that officers have with some suffering from mental illness. Its creation was a priority of Police Chief Bob Carden. Officers will concentrate on making sure the patients they deal with are receiving the treatment they need, so contacts with police can be reduced.
The department hopes the training will lead to a better understanding of mental health issues, giving officers more information than what they receive in their police academy classes or what they learn through experience.
"Mental illness is an illness like any other," Carr said. "It's not something people choose to have."
Duerksen said the idea for the training came first from an advisory board made up of community representatives looking into what could be done to increase mental health care in the area.
The training program being used in Tulare County was first tried by police in Memphis about 15 years ago after the shooting of a mentally ill man by police, Duerksen said. One of the goals of the training is to help decrease the number of arrests and uses of force on the mentally ill.
Another goal is to increase trust between police and the mentally ill. Both Carr and Duerksen acknowledged that some patients have negative impressions of the police because of negative experiences.
Like many areas of the country, Tulare County and the San Joaquin Valley are seeing more contacts between the police and the mentally ill, officials say. Duerksen said several factors, including changes in the way patients are treated and problems with access to care, have helped to drive such contacts nationwide.
The reporter can be reached at tbragg@fresnobee.com or(559) 622-2417.
__________________________________________________________________________-
From the Visalia Times-Delta
May 1, 2008
Shooting shows need for mental health care
The recent shooting at Roosevelt High School in Fresno, my alma-mater, was not surprising. Violent? Yes. Surprising? No. There is no campus police officer who wants to kill the students they are there to protect.
Anyone who works in education or the health career field, however, knows that there is a tremendous shortage of mental health-care services and professionals in the Central Valley.
Every day in our Valley, children and adults deal with a host of mental issues including, but not limited to depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive disorder, anorexia/bulimia, just to name a few.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in America. Many of these illnesses go untreated due to lack of money or insurance for doctor visits or medications, transportation issues, and in many cases, denial.
As a teacher, I have dealt with students who come to school and also miss a lot of school due to being treated at mental hospitals, are suicidal, depressed, undergo tremendous stress and have family problems or drug problems.
As an EMT, our company transports on average, 5 patients per week, sometimes many more, to facilities that deal specifically with mental health issues, mainly due to the lack of services here in our immediate area.
Why the problem? There are numerous reasons, but back in the 1970s, California began emptying its mental hospitals with the promise that patients would be treated in their local communities and the state would send the money it saved to help the counties finance the programs.
That only lasted into the first budget crisis of the early 1970s, and funds for mental health services have been shrinking at all levels since.
Mental disorders can be inherited. It is important for families to research and discuss the subject of mental disease that is in their families, but most find it uncomfortable and shameful to discuss such issues.
We, as a community, must take action to care for these patients and educate their families. We must pressure our community leaders and health-care professionals to recruit and hire qualified professionals to serve our area.
We need to educate our community about the services that are currently available. We need to provide easy access to these services, regardless of availability to pay.
Ignoring the problem offers no solutions; it only exacerbates it. We are all victims of a system that is incredibly broken, and I am afraid that if we don't act immediately, we will see more violence in our community, not just at a high school.
Dave Rodgers is a Certified Health Education Specialist, E.M.T., and teacher at Golden West High School in Visalia.
__________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle
April 24, 2008
Attorney leading suit a veteran in battling VA
Gordon Erspamer, the attorney who brought the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs that went to trial this week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is a big, unresponsive government agency's worst nightmare.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/24/BA3K10AIB1.DTL
_______________________________________________
From MSNBC
April 13, 2008
A year after Va. Tech, helping troubled students
Campus killings changed how colleges deal with mental health problems
The rampage carried out nearly a year ago by a deranged Virginia Tech student who slipped through the mental health system has changed how American colleges reach out to troubled students.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24055987
________________________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle
January 28, 2008
Slaying on Russion Hill
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/01/29/BAIKUNUH4.DTL
It was a surprise to hear gunfire up among the upscale apartments and condominiums on Russian Hill, a shock to see a panhandler waving a knife, and an absolute stunner to hear that when police fired on the man they killed him. Everyone would agree that it was a terrible, scary, unfortunate tragedy.
But there was one part of it that didn't surprise those familiar with life on the street: the announcement by police that the man had mental health problems.
___________________________________________
From the New York Times:
January 27,2008
War Torn Part III - A series of articles and multimedia about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have committed killings, or been charged with them, after coming home.
In More Cases, Combat Trauma Is Taking the Stand
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/us/27vets.html?hp
___________________________________________
From the Washington Post:
December 29, 2007
Law raises issues of states’ reach in patient care
Debate swirls over rules allowing mentally ill to be forced into treatment
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/29/AR2007122901622.html
___________________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
November 13, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/13/MN3ST0DCQ.DTL&hw=San+Francisco+Behavioral+Health+court+Huge+Success&sn=001&sc=1000
Special court in S.F. offers hope and help to those short on both
Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/13/07
As debate rages over how to solve San Francisco's seemingly intractable homeless problem, city leaders, academic researchers and even some formerly homeless people themselves say progress is being made every Thursday afternoon inside Department 15 at the...
___________________________________________
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Sunday, November 4, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
Rights of mentally ill street people thwart efforts to prevent harm
C.W. Nevius
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/11/04/MNI4T5L3S.DTL
_________________________________________________________
From Time Magazine:
De-Criminalizing Mental Illness
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1651002,00.html
___________________________________________
From the New York Times Magazine:
MAGAZINE | March 25, 2007
Can You Live With the Voices in Your Head?
By DANIEL B. SMITH
Auditory hallucinations have long been understood as a sign of severe mental illness. For some, that’s part of the problem.
_______________________________
NAMI Tulare County
Location: Visalia, CA
93278-3655
Phone: 559-732-NAMI (6264)
Email: namirn@sbcglobal.net
Web Page: www.nami.org/sites/tularecounty
|
|
|
| | |
|
Tulare Co.
