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There are lot of undiagnosed mentally disturbed individuals that don't get mental health care in the US. It has mainly to do with poor health care system, general denial, and stigma.
Access to mental care is prohibitively expensive - even more so than physical health costs.***************
Apparently, nearly 1 in 5 Americans has some type of mental health condition.
The problem is that ever where people get "mental health care" that care is of dubious value for someone who doesn't think he has a problem. Psychotherapy must be a two-way street with the patient working with the doctor, psychologist, social worker or for that matter clergy. A member of an urban street gang has a very real problem; a need for acceptance. A therapist cannot fulfill that need.
In some cities people are crammed into tiny studio apartments like bees in a hive. Human beings are not meant to live like bees in a hive. When people have at least a small plot of land to call their own, they can nurture a pet or a garden of some sort. I believe that is invaluable for mental health.
I've thought about this quite a bit in relationship to mental health care. A country setting and animals to take care for can work wonders for calming people and giving them a sense of worth and purpose. Not a cure but a good setting. I've known several addicts who were sent to isolated farms by their families to "kick the habit" successfully.
Our State Hospital used to be a contained society. It had it's own laundry, kitchen, housekeeping, farms and gardens all worked by the patients with supervision. It had a lake for fishing and swimming, picnic and band concerts with its own band. Everyone who was able contributed and was reimbursed a small pittance. It was a small community.
Old timers who were institutionalized but stable were even allowed to build their own little cabins away from the main campus - retired!
In the days it existed like that there wasn't much in the way of medications and the treatments were crude and sometimes abusive. But in many ways it provided for human needs that are required which modern medicine doesn't.
This, combined with basic counseling and modern medicine would be a much more humane and less expensive method.
I can just hear the law suits piling up as I type. Heh.
The problem is that ever where people get "mental health care" that care is of dubious value for someone who doesn't think he has a problem. Psychotherapy must be a two-way street with the patient working with the doctor, psychologist, social worker or for that matter clergy. A member of an urban street gang has a very real problem; a need for acceptance. A therapist cannot fulfill that need.
All my opinion here. Always enjoy conversing with you.
It's my observation that working five days a week, eight hours a day can have an abysmal effect on people who work in these institutions. A damaged worker isn't worth much. The institutions should know this but little is done to protect them from physical and emotional harm.
The patients and slick lawyers are running the asylums. Well, and ignorant, well-meaning legislators. So - big turnover or burned out staff.
It really isn't a reasonable expectation for today's mental health centers to do inpatient psychotherapy. In fact I don't believe it is in vogue today or necessary. The stays are entirely too short and introspection doesn't guarantee improvement. A number of patients will also be incapable of self-examination.
The methods used today are stabilization, education about the illness, reinforcement of the need for consistency in medication and/or treatment plan. Behavioral modification. I think it's a myth that you have to know the origins of a problem to solve it. "When the barn's on fire you don't go looking for who started it. You put it out." Maintain stability and eventually the pieces will fall in place or become less important.
The type of patient you are describing needs to be able to make the connection between his behavior and attitudes and the negative consequences. He needs to be helped to understand that his lack of acceptance is directly related to his antisocial approach to the norms.
And yes, that's a two way street. Some workers are very good at bridging the gap for these damaged guys, and thank goodness for them, but it has to be done with an emphasis on self-discipline and earning respect.
Bonding is great but it's not enough to cause change.
What I'm saying is there's a time and place to fit in all the needs and inpatient is at the foundation level.
In some cities people are crammed into tiny studio apartments like bees in a hive. Human beings are not meant to live like bees in a hive. When people have at least a small plot of land to call their own, they can nurture a pet or a garden of some sort. I believe that is invaluable for mental health.
It is a good notion and it certainly applies to me, all this money spent on the ranch when I could be rich in city.....my soul would be dying inside each day, having seen differences between rural and urban people, I wonder how much of it applies across the board. After all, the differences in "Green Acres".
The opposite "argument" to that is why don't the men of Tokyo go off the rails if so? Well, perhaps they do just instead of causing harm to others, they cause it to themselves. Of course, another thing about that location, in addition to the society differences, is that being a smaller statue people, perhaps they don't feel it as much as a larger statue people would.
It’s a culture problem combined with revolving door of justice spinning fast enough to power the whole continent problem. We have close to a million violent gangbangers who have zero issue with unloading a full clip down a busy street at a wrong-colored hat and we have gun laws that don’t get enforced majority of the time, with repeat violent offenders being released on laughably low or no bails and never setting their foot in prison.
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Originally Posted by Back to NE
No we have both. Only narco/gang states like Colombia, Brazil, El Salvador etc. rank up with the US in gun deaths per capita.
One of the potential hurdles when one is looking at how widespread a prostitute killing spree is is for the neighboring community to say "Nothing like that here......because we don't have a prostitute problem.". An invisible population they are not willing to admit to for whatever reason. This sounds so similar.
I've thought about this quite a bit in relationship to mental health care. A country setting and animals to take care for can work wonders for calming people and giving them a sense of worth and purpose. Not a cure but a good setting. I've known several addicts who were sent to isolated farms by their families to "kick the habit" successfully.
Our State Hospital used to be a contained society. It had it's own laundry, kitchen, housekeeping, farms and gardens all worked by the patients with supervision. It had a lake for fishing and swimming, picnic and band concerts with its own band. Everyone who was able contributed and was reimbursed a small pittance. It was a small community.
Old timers who were institutionalized but stable were even allowed to build their own little cabins away from the main campus - retired!
In the days it existed like that there wasn't much in the way of medications and the treatments were crude and sometimes abusive. But in many ways it provided for human needs that are required which modern medicine doesn't.
This, combined with basic counseling and modern medicine would be a much more humane and less expensive method.
I can just hear the law suits piling up as I type. Heh.
Good points.
I think are a lot of people in power who don't want a workable mental health model as you suggested.
One of the potential hurdles when one is looking at how widespread a prostitute killing spree is is for the neighboring community to say "Nothing like that here......because we don't have a prostitute problem.". An invisible population they are not willing to admit to for whatever reason. This sounds so similar.
We have that happening in our little city. Not necessarily with any particular crime but an obviously concerted effort among the city, the schools, the press and the police to hide and obfuscate the amount of violence that happens.
I can go into detail with examples but wont take the time. Those of you who pay attention will notice it in your cities.
One reason, I believe, is that we are a college town and if word got out who would want to send their kids? They are the town's lifeblood.
Unfortunately because of this the problem is hidden and doesn't get addressed. Worst possible choice that could be made. We don't have a problem here.
Are there any serious studies other than agenda-driven tracts about these fairly common, purposeless and tragic situations? Or in lieu of such studies, does anybody here have any ideas?
Sure, it's a result of a chemical imbalance within the brain.
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