The Abysmal State of Mental Health in the United States
The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech illuminates the colossal failure of government and public policy to all our citizens who have mental disabilities and are ignored, denied. blurred, blamed and are invisible. The Federal Government should lead in establishing an environment of reality and acceptance of treatment without the ignorant stigma of shame. Mental problems are just as legitimate as a cut needing stitches or a heart attack. Yet people who seek help for a psychological problem are still looked upon as flawed and blamed for not being able to handle their own problems.
We need public education to encourage individuals to go for help when they recognize feeling out–of-control or in a situation where they need counseling, support and advice. Some problems are chemical imbalances and often medications can reduce symptoms or stabilize the individual, if the person takes the medication. They don’t always take them because the medications have such uncomfortable side effects that the patient believes that the disease is easier to cope with than the drugs.
Other problems are situational and don’t need to be medicated but brought to the surface, worked out and resolved. The best way to do this is through “talk therapy.” There are many modalities that effectively work to educate and empower people to stop repeated patterns of destructive and self-deprecating behaviors. Being molested as a child is one example. There is no drug to resolve the damage done and continuing negative effects on adult relationships like trust issues, guilt, shame and sexual confusion and dysfunction. These issues need to be resolved by other means.
Medicating such a wound just exacerbates the dilemma and doesn’t resolve or heal the wound. Neither does behavior modification.
Grief is similar issue. Typically it isn’t pathological, yet it hurts like hell for a long time. Medication isn’t recommended. Talking about the pain and expressing the hurt is a healthier way to deal with grief. Knowing what to expect, the hot spots and the time frame is empowering. Just knowing that the immediate pain will heal itself is part of the healing process.
Historically, we as a nation have attached a stigma of shame on the individual suffering from a mental problem and on the family. I know because in 1956 my father was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and rather than go to a hospital and inflict shame on his family and himself he killed himself at 45 years old.
In the 1960′s we began systematically to empty out all our mental hospital. Often they were less than ideal, but rather than reform them we dumped the patients onto the street. Most homeless people have serious mental health problems and so do most inmates in jail. Today when a person is identified with serious mental problems there is no place to put him or her, few long-term beds and certainly not an adequate amount are available for the mentally ill. Half way houses substitute as a safe place to be housed, but they are rarely safe. And inmates in jail don’t get adequate mental health help to prevent recidivism, returning to jail after they are released.
Then in the 1990′s the Health Maintaince Organizations (HMO’s) appeared on the reimbursement stage and embraced short-term therapy with an emphasis on behavioral modification and limited psychotherapy to six or on occasion twelve sessions. Any additional sessions need to be approved by the HMO before they would be paid. This was the death knoll to effective therapy for the severely mentally ill.
Behavior modification is basically a band-aid type of therapy believing if you change your thoughts you heal any pain or problems from old wounds. Just sweep it under the carpet and it will fade away. This works for some minor problems and patients who can adjust in a very structured modality but is not realistic for more severely wounded people, some need months and even years of therapy. The most seriously disturbed patients may take months just to establish trust in their therapist before they even reveal what happened to them.
States don’t have enough money to adequately fund Community Mental Health Programs. Many people fall between the cracks even when identified and mandated to get out patient therapy. Mental health practioners are overloaded, overwhelmed and underpaid. It is a job with high burn out and high turn over. A patient may begin with one therapist, who moves on and the patient is transferred and has to start all over with someone else.
Private insurance limits the number of visits they will pay for through reimbursement and co-payments. They closely monitor the number of visits, that are regulated by HMO staff. A mental health professional literally has to beg for additional visits when deemed necessary. Additionally the HMO tells the practitioner what they will pay and it is rarely his or her regular fees, always less.
Mental health must become a higher priority in this country to prevent innocent people from becoming victims. All of society is responsible for this tragedy. We must demand more education, better treatment and prevention strategies to avoid similar incidents in the future.
This is a broken system and needs to be fixed. Now!
Here this nice Video about mental health
10 August 2008
Find your answer for your own question related to mental health
What mental health services could you benefit from?Hi, I'm conducting an informal survey for mental health services, my question is, if you were to receive counseling or assistance from a mental health services provider, what would you want? For example if you are depressed, what kind of attention/care would you hope to get? I appreciate your time. Thanks!
Tags: Counseling, cutting, mentalhealth, selfinjury, stigmas, suicide, Therapy
Buy “Explaining colours to a blind man”. This will
enlighten many about living with mental illness.
youre really pritty and youre videos really help with my cutting
You are very right, the behavior is ingrained in people who SI from a young age sometimes, and becomes common to replace any emotions. Recovery is hard, but it is possible for anyone. It is vital to discover your emotional triggers and the root of why you do it, yes. Thank you for your positive and helpful comments, and for being open minded. It is much appreciated in a world that does not understand.
It’s good to talk briefly with the therapist BEFORE making appointments and seeing where they have experience in. As for telling people they’re “not ready” to recover, that is bs. If you’re there on your own free will, then you are ready. People who are not ready are drug addicts who still want to do drugs and are just seeing a councelor because they’re required to.
I was told I could get free long-term counselling if i was a drug addict but as Im not I was turned away. Ive also been turned away from therapy because i wouldnt take anti-depressants again (id been on loads of types before). Its all a bit useless really. Anyway, another good video, thanks. xx
I am already on medication for both BiPolar and anxiety, so I suppose that talk therapy about the causes of my episodes would be helpful, too.
Have you tried Linehan's "Skills Training for Borderline Personality Disorder" workbook? I used exercises from this during graduate training in an outpatient mental health clinic.
A couple of years ago, I was at a conference on community mental health that talked about client/consumer-based programs that were pretty much primarily run by the clients themselves. I don't know the severity level of your population, but I would try to get the clients to support each other as best I could, and research client- or consumer-based programs and their efficacy levels. I thinking that that clients will respond to encouragement from their peers more than they will respond to encouragement from their therapists.
In regards to delusions and hallucinations, based on my experience, the best way to intervene is to 1) enter their reality and never invalidate it 2) empathize with the feeling
3) based on their past history, try to interpret accordingly and 4) if you confront them, confront them on the effects of their thinking – not that their thinking is wrong – e.g. how is their thinking making their life better or worse, and is there a better, safer, more workable alternative?
Good luck.
No, no, it’s not that I dislike reality, I dislike getting hypomanic at times but I learn to deal with it accordingly and not let it ruin situations. I don’t want medication because then I won’t be able to FEEL reality. It makes me numb.
You’ll recover,
You are a brave young woman to share unashamedly your history.
May the Ane Sofe/Infinite Creator Bless and Annoint you to recover what you feel will restore what you know needs restoration.
Sababa~Rejoice
As much as you can and hopefully others will be caused to be joyful from your strength and determination!!!!
Most Respectfully,
SJ
Thank you, chelsea_lulu21, for asking.
I agree with deYoung's answer but also the truth-be-told, I dare say that during the past 3 and half decades I've encountered many mental health professionals and the bunch with the most obvious serious personality disorders turns out to be none other than our psychiatrists who were book-smart enough to pass all the schooling exams and unfortunately ended up with their degrees although seriously lacking in true interpersonal relationship skills due to their personality disorder. If someone needs to see a therapist I would sooner suggest they see a psychologist than a psychiatrist for better odds.
And surely it does stand to reason that someone who has experienced symptoms of mental illness can empathize rather than just sympathize with their patients.
And thanks again for asking. Tsark out.
I don’t self injure (actually anything sharp or drawing blood would freak me out) but the whole “you can never recover thing” sounds like a ploy for them to make to make more money and like a contract, how they can claim “we are no responsible if”… it’s like telling the patient they’re the slave! “You will never get better but I’ll try to help you, though if that doesn’t work out, can’t blame me!”
Some people with mental health issues function well in the workplace with others. Others who may be more seriously impaired have to have assisted living arrangements and educational accommodations for their specific needs. Nearly everyone has at least one mental health issue these days. So, the answer is NO. Most people with these mental issues are integrated into the mainstream of society today.
This makes me thankful for the British NHS; at least there is a modicum of treatment for free; it seems as if America is considering the partial deployment of what they refer to as ‘socialised medicine’; let’s hope they do.
Only if you are a minor and your parents have agreed or you are suspected of harming someone or planning to harm someone. In that case, it would be the police doing the monitoring and the psych folks evaluating the findings.
I barely tell them my name in 6 weeks! Lol. Do you find phone helplines helpful at all? I dont. They make me too uncomfortable, its weird talking to someone when you cant see their body language. Makes me paranoid!
You can find such opportunities here:
VolunteerMatch, http://www.volunteermatch.org
Idealist, http://www.idealist.org
Change.org, http://www.change.org
CraigsList, http://www.craigslist.com
Network for Good, http://www.networkforgood.org
http://www.1-800-volunteer.org/
ServeNet, http://servenet.org/
Also, contact your local volunteer center; you can find this via the Points of Light Foundation web site,
http://www.pointsoflight.org/centers/
It's really up to you. You might earn more money specializing in the field of learning disabilities- because you'd be paid by school districts or families that are willing to pay thousands of dollars to test their kid (to get them special services they need, or to help them get into schools "despite" their learning disabilitiy).
I personally feel that you'll make a bigger difference in the world by working with the mentally ill- because folks with major mental illness need support- but it's more challenging and usually less financially rewarding- since these programs are rarely adequately funded.
This specific video was a request for someone who was a student who wanted to use it for a project. In general I began making videos to just talk about my own experience with mental illness and let people know they aren’t alone, & to spread awareness about mental illness to those who don’t understand it.
Good luck- my psychothery, which was very successful, was destroyed. By so called mental health doctors and therapists in another town. I have become a hermit as a result. The System stands by and watches cruelty against so called mentally ill people. The receptionist smiles and hands out appointment cards. Because its her job. Its a farce.
I feel you. The free low/cost mental health here is about the same length, and in that time you can’t even scratch the surface. There are loads of free treatments and rehabs for drug addicts, but nothing for people with mental health issues. It’s really hard to deal with, I don’t really know what to do either!
I have bipolar and although I’m able to work, I would not qualify for disability. Though I’ve never really tried getting disability. I would definitely have to flat out lie about what I can and cannot do. Yah, you have to lie. As far as medication, I don’t want to take it because I don’t like the side effects. I don’t like the zombie thing either. On medication, you can tell me that my best friend just died and I”ll be like, “ok, whatever, anyway…” Medication just makes you not give a dam.
I know what you mean. They treat BPD like a throwaway diagnosis, as if anyone who doesn’t fit anywhere else can just be shoved into a little BPD box. Doctors find people with BPD hard to work with due to the fact that they are notoriously hard to treat, but that doesn’t mean you should be judged unfairly or not listened to. I’m sorry this happened to you. Take care.
Lots of jobs in behavioral health. Any state agency would give their eye teeth for you.
Dealing with the “profit motive and greed driven” American healthcare system as a mentally ill person is a nightmare. And the way our country deals with mental illness is tragic, and criminal in my opinion. But at least with a new President with Barack Obama in the White House. I’m a bit optimistic & hopeful that the country is headed towards the direction of having a single paying healthcare system. Perhaps Medicare for ALL. But you guys do have it made in the U.K. Compared to us.
I would agree with WPIC, but thats cause its the only one Ive been too. But they do have GREAT Drs there….and other staff was great too. And it is right next to and conected by a hallway to presby (also great drs there), so if needed patients can be brought over there very easily.
See this is something that has been running through my head for some time, medication, you lose your sense of reality, but when it comes down to it if reality is something you dont like, maybe the false reality is the key, yet you would be living in a world of lies.
drugs, lack of self esteem, getting picked on, having no one to talk to or not having guidance, cutting, self isolation, shutting the world out
I live in the UK where we are supposed to get free healthcare but where I live there are NO long-term free counsellors at all. They see you for a maximum of 6 weeks which lets face it is pretty useless!! I now am trying to pay for counselling but in reality i cant afford it. Im sure if i lived in a big city itd be different but in this area theres no help. Theres NO support groups or anything like that. There is a psychiatric ward but thats not helpful at all.
That's a really good question.
We took out a home-equity loan so I could get the intensive treatment I needed. Unfortunately, the practitioners I had weren't much good.
Your mental health is worth doing a LOT of research on the psychiatrist or other therapist you plan to see. It's worth shopping around for a doctor.
Obviously your health can't be price-tagged, but I will say it's ridiculous for a doc to charge 250 bucks for sitting there looking at you for an hour and then saying "so what prescriptions do you need refilled?"
If we could eliminate the middle man (the prescription writer) I could treat myself just as well, having been forced to self-educate about m.h. as much as I have.
But you asked for a figure, I think. Unfortunately, your mental health will cost what the market will bear, I guess. Being behaviorally healthy is necessary because, just as with untreated physical illnesses, going untreated eventually leads to death.
healthplans.bebto.com – here is my health insurance. As I remember they can provide such a service.
http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=State_and_Local_Programs&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=9535
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has run a program for years called Educating the Next Generation. You can get lesson plans from them for a very small fee. Are you volunteering in the same program?
I found, from volunteering in the program, that most high school students are fairly well informed about general mental illness. They were most curious to get an updated list of famous people suffering from mental illness that they can relate to.
They responded really well to hearing personal stories from volunteers and being invited to ask questions about all types of mental illness. As volunteers we chose disorders to talk about. I often chose lesser known disorders like Substance Abuse, Borderline Personality, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
The classes had short attention spans so the more engaging you are as a speaker and the more you integrate popular celebrity subjects they can relate to the better it will go.
Eminem's wife battled documented substance abuse and had a suicide attempt. Olympic gold medalist swimmer Ian Crocker has battled depression. Britney Spears had some kind of nervous breakdown. Heath Ledger's death may be an example of "dual diagnosis" whether or not it was an accidental or intentional OD.
Avoid slander and libel by researching such cases. If you are not a volunteer and simply a teacher then you can contact your local NAMI office for volunteers to come to your class and speak.
Cont. from Canada..like alcohol or drug use, it can become an addiction. It was mentioned that cutting can take place even when you are not feeling depressed. This behavior has become so much a part of you, the journey towards recovery will be difficult and challenging. You will be going against the grain of years of learned behavior. Do I think it is possible? Absolutely. You have a great deal of strength. That is vital. You would make an amazing advocate for mental health.
Well, if your health insurance covers it, they pay for most of it, depending on your policy. Otherwise you pay for it. Unless you're on medicaid.
I think alot of people that need mental health care don't get it because they can't afford it. That's a sad thing.
any college bookstore.
keep vlogging at that angle because your BOOBS make this tolerable.
having been in treatment for BPD, i was often made to feel that Borderline was just a self-inflicted “attention-seeking” disease. i was abused and they didn’t want to listen. why do doctors hate Borderlines so much?
I am a community service worker in Canada. After watching your video, i am stunned by the lack of empathy you have had to deal with.
I am not an expert on self harm. I can only imagine the emotional pain one must feel in order to cut. Replacing emotional pain with physical pain should not be taken lightly. I could see it also being a release. Opening up ones body to bleed out the bad feelings. I agree that it is vital to discover the root of why this has become a coping mechanism.
First of all it would help to know how old you are.
But next in you phone book-guessing you live in the states, look up Dept of Mental Health. Call the number given and ask for the Director of Mental Health Services for you area of the state, most states are divided into areas. Next explain you have no insurance and you are in need of mental health services, most all states have agencies that work on a sliding scale. Also some states actually have a hot line that will help you if you need immediate help and I don't mean hospitalization. If that fails to work you can read my profile and if you feel safe e-mail me and I'll see what I can do for the state you live in. God Bless Reggie
Well my guess is you would be doing just as the title says. A mental health specialist….
Just have your instructor look at YA for five minutes. This place is a venerable Who's Who in mental illness.
i think they're both equally important
Actually it is highly regulated among licensed professionals. The problem is that anyone can call themselves a "therapist" without education or licensure. Just like anyone can call themselves a "life coach, job coach," etc.
LMFT's (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists) and LP's (Licensed Psychologists) have ethical guidelines they must follow or risk losing their license. I don't know where the LMFT's get theres, but you can go to APA.org to see the code of ethics for psychologists.
you’re so good, you should make podcasts of these topics.
National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml
Research would NIMH's site Pubmed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
It's a start…
It’s cruel but the truth is: you have to help yourself.
You are on your own with this.
Forget the doctors,love yourself and don’t count on doctors.
They can help sometimes BUT never count on them.
What kind of skills building? I would probably incorporate some behavioral techniques, like social skills training.
You can work on building interpersonal relationships…(eye contact, tone of voice, etc) and you can give out little homework assignments. Start small and build their confidence to interact in more anxiety provoking situations. (Ex: have them strike up a conversation with someone at the grocery store…then work their way up to initiating conversation with a stranger, etc)
You can practice in therapy and model the behavior. Then, encourage them to practice these skills in real-world settings.
This is beneficial for clients who have difficulties in social situations.
An evaluation for depression will include asking you questions about your life now and administering a test, probably BDI (Beck's Depression Inventory).
You spend maybe 15 or 20 mins answering the questionnaire and the person evaluating you will go over your score with you and what it means.
If you're moderately or severelydepressed, you'll be referred to a licensed psychologist (or a student near graduation working under an experienced supervisor) and told to talk to your doctor about antidepressants.
good luck, kiddo
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Emotional health refers to our thoughts and feelings, and their effect on our well-being. Negative emotions, such as anger, frustration, impatience, anxiety, resentment, sadness, despair, grief, jealousy, hopelessness, etc. can create conditions like DEPRESSION or FATIGUE if they are not diminished before they get out of control. Proven methods of dealing with negative emotions are exercise, meditation, stress management, and positive thinking practices. If you need an actual picture, look for one from the drugs ads for anti-depressants.
Mental health describes cognitive well-being, and is often defined as the absence of mental illness. It can be closely tied to emotional health since it intertwines with thoughts and feelings, but is usually related to chemical balances within the body. Mental disorders – such as Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Alcoholism, Panic Disorder, ADD – are more severe and usually require medication to minimize the symptoms. A great picture would be someone with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after combat.