This place has gone mad!

[Royd]

Quote:
Thanks, Teach. May I take my Ritalin, so that I can finish this dissertation.

 

[Dunkopf]

Does any one know who the famous actor was that turned thousands of people in mental hospitals out on the street to cut cost?

 

[Royd]

I had a cousin, who told me that he didn't like running the vacumn, because the voices got louder. I told him that's because they had to shout, to be heard, over the vacumn.

 

[Moabite]

I had a cousin, who told me that he didn't like running the vacumn, because the voices got louder. I told him that's because they had shout, to be heard, over the vacumn.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
No.. I wonder who it is?

 

[welsummerchicks]

The 'famous actor' only kept the ball rolling. The 'community health care' movement was a bunch of very, very strange bedfellows and a lot of factors converging at one unbelievable outcome, not the least being an expose in 'Life' magazine of exactly what the conditions in those 'hospitals' were really like.

At one point, the mental health care budgets were at the state level. The bottom line was to save money, and the monies that were supposed to go to the counties never got there. County-level community mental health care remains a largely 'unfunded mandate'.

But that all suggests we should go back to the 'good old days' and 'lock 'em up' in a big warehouse, because everything was peachy keen back then. In fact things were not peachy keen. That was where they usually got very little actual treatment or consistency of care, and most of the 'teaching' revolved around how to pretend one was not mentally ill, a lot of practice in combing your hair and cleaning toilets, and admonitions to only socialize with other mentally ill people. It was also a place where in most cases, people who had no money did not stay very long.

All nostalgia aside, that actually didn't really work either. Check out Wisconsin Death Trip. There were violent crimes back in the day too. and disturbed offenders and the whole 9 yards.

 

[Dunkopf]

deleted because of double posting and limited computer skills.

 

[Dunkopf]

That was kind of what I figured. Depending on who is carrying the torch. They either want to throw more money at problems or just eliminate all the money and make it every person for themselves. Neither system seems to work. More money would be good if they spent the money properly. Will we as a country ever get it right. I'm talking about all the social issues that are constantly debated. They are all intertwined in my opinion.

 

[PineappleMama]

^Too true.

One thing that MIGHT help is if we can manage to figure out which illnesses are nature and which are nurture. We've made some strides in the nurture department, compared to 50-100-200 years ago anyways, talking about abuse is more open (though still shockingly hidden in way too many cases)... there are places to go, if you're being abused a cop won't say it's a family affair and walk away... it's gotten better, but there's a long way to go. We definitely need continuing education in that front.

But on the nurture part, we're starting to know our genes, can ID some... hopefully we'll know for sure one way or the other if any mental illnesses are genetic or not. If they are then folks can be advised that maybe adoption, surrogate, etc would be an alternative if they don't want their children to 'get it'... just like they do with diabetes and such you know? Still their choice of course, but if someone has struggled with this thing their whole lives, and thought it was just nurture then they might figure that just being a different parent from what they had would prevent their kiddos from having to face that particular problem... and they might feel bad for passing the genes on... I could see that being a possible reaction, especially if your illness has been a plague for you?? Flip side of course is if we find out for sure that it is NOT genetic, 100% nurture, then we can make sure that the folks who have an illness and want babies know that and then they can do what they can to make sure their kiddos are happy. Education either way is a good thing IMO... it gives you more choices and more control over your actions.

But then there's also always the possibility that no real mental illness existed. Revenge, for instance, isn't a mental illness... it's a goal, and can have horrible results, but even the most totally sane, never abused, perfectly normal person can get revenge into their heads if they're pushed far enough... of course having the cojones to carry it out... different kettle of fish. I've thought of some pretty mean paybacks in my time, but the worst I ever inflicted was withholding my cooking (specifically desserts) from my BIL after he did wrong and then yelled obscenities at me for it... so... yeah, don't think anyone'll be nicknaming me Terminator any time soon... *shrug* Is my aversion to violence any more of an illness than another person's liking it? Who knows. There's SO much about the brain we just don't understand... yet.

 

[Dunkopf]

Lot of interesting stuff coming out here. There are so many viewpoints. It's amazing how Hollywood, with the movies and the TV shows, affects our opinions. You see something on a medical show and since it is kind of a serious show, you just assume that it may have some factual basis. The media affects our opinions on everything in so many ways. Even the so called news is often full of hooie. So called experts desperately trying to shape our minds.

Wellsummer is obviously well versed since she works in the industry. I bet that there are a lot of different schools of thought within her circle. (I assume that Wellsummer is a she, correct me if I'm wrong.) She has enlightened me some on this topic. That is one of the fun things on this forum. Sometimes you think you know something and find out you don't. The trick is to be able to understand and accept it. Hard to do sometimes.