Obama & Mental Health

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12:29:20 PM - Thu, Jan 13th 2011
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I didn't watch the president's speech last night, so I was surprised to hear on the radio on the way to work this morning that he is apparently going to investigate what is being done about those with mental health issues. I think any of us on this forum could pretty quickly and easily explain the situation, so it should be interesting to see what comes of this. With state governments looking to cut massive chunks of their 2011 budgets I'm sure that state hospitals were not on the list to get more money this year. Perhaps this will result in the creation of new government hospitals like St Elizabeths Hospital? Who knows, perhaps it will fizzle and die by next week. But there is no question that this country is headed in the wrong direction as far as caring for those with mental illnesses. Just the other night I was sitting on my sofa with my laptop looking at the list of PA state hospitals that are still open, wondering which one will be announced for closure this year.

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2:27:57 PM - Thu, Jan 13th 2011
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Good point. It's interesting to think that mental healthcare could go the federal route. I know that here in WV for the State of the State address last night the Gov. promised to cut the sales tax on food from 3% to 2% saving WV comsumers an estimated $29million per year. It's comments like that that always make me think; so what's gonna get cut?

Just keep in mind politicians are pros about "talking" about issues and then pretending that they "addressed" them. I'd be really surprised if anything actually happens asided from some type of expensive audit of the system.

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3:22:48 PM - Thu, Jan 13th 2011
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In today's political environment I try not to talk about politics with my friends in case of offending them.

While I am heartened to see both sides interested in working together over this recent tragedy. In reality, I don't see this going very far. While they may write something and push for change, others will quickly oppose it and it will die. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.
Edited On 6:05:20 PM - Thu, Jan 13th 2011 by M-Explorer

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3:48:48 AM - Sat, Jan 15th 2011
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Well said M, I found the quickest way to get into arguments, especially with friends is to talk politics!

That said, I don't think there will be any changes to the system. People have been trying to tell the politicians for years that all the mentally ill are in prisons instead of state hospitals anymore. There was someone on CNN or MSNBC that said "the reason state hospitals had a huge decline in patients wasn't because of medication but because they pretty much just dumped them into the streets.

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2:52:02 AM - Thu, Aug 23rd 2012
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Quote:Squad546 Sat 15th 3:48 am
Well said M, I found the quickest way to get into arguments, especially with friends is to talk politics!

That said, I don't think there will be any changes to the system. People have been trying to tell the politicians for years that all the mentally ill are in prisons instead of state hospitals anymore. There was someone on CNN or MSNBC that said "the reason state hospitals had a huge decline in patients wasn't because of medication but because they pretty much just dumped them into the streets.


I will say this statement is true, I remember the deinstitutionalization days from Buffalo State when I was there. It was a bad move throw folks out into "family care" or whatever and let us all fend for ourselves gotta get the census down. Supposedly being inside wasn't a good idea because of the "stigma" that went with being a mental patient. At least inside they counted you daily and you got what you needed.
Sorry I'm sort of mad at the way "deinstitutionalization" worked (or didn't)

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1:50:00 PM - Thu, Aug 23rd 2012
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I work in Illinois right now and it's kind of scary to think what will happen as some of the new budget cuts take effect. Our regional mental health provider that is state run (Singer mental Health) is set to close in October due to budget cuts across the state. The sad part of that is it's going to put the burden on the regular hospitals here and really won't save that much in cost in the long run. Deinstitutionalization was a great idea on paper, but it fails to realize that there are people that need the support of an institution because they just can't function on their own. I've seen time and time again that it takes really dedicated staff working with folks like this to succeed. If the support isn't their they end up out on the street.

I hate politics in general but I'd like to actually see a budget from a person running for office that actually laid out a real assessment of the money coming in and going out. It seems like their are always loop holes and things that they use to cover the "messy" parts or some kind of vagueness that doesn't explain anything at all.

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3:43:56 PM - Thu, Aug 23rd 2012
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I never did hear anymore on this issue, did anyone else?

I was doing some research online for a book I'm writing and the most recent statistic I could find was that as of 2009 there were approx 11 million adults with a serious mental illness in this country. http://blog.samhsa.gov/2012/04/18/mental-health-in-the-united-states/

It is surprising that no more Pennsylvania state hospitals have closed since I started this topic, though they are finally selling off the vacant Allentown buildings.

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5:56:09 AM - Sat, Aug 25th 2012
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Good link, ThomasP! I would guess that's the closest we can get to a reliable number. If you look at the numbers and dates of when many state hospitals closed in the '80s, prison populations suddenly went up, while in-patient mental hospital numbers went down. I used to have a neighbor that worked at a state prison and he said "I'm now a mental health worker, not a corrections officer anymore." I think that sums it up fairly well. Manteno had a big problem with homeless and crime for several years after they closed the state hospital there. Patients were released but came back to what they considered their home, this happened in quite a few communities that had a state hospital shutdown.

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8:36:01 PM - Sun, Aug 26th 2012
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Quote:Thomasp94 Thu 23rd 11:43 am
I never did hear anymore on this issue, did anyone else?

I was doing some research online for a book I'm writing and the most recent statistic I could find was that as of 2009 there were approx 11 million adults with a serious mental illness in this country. http://blog.samhsa.gov/2012/04/18/mental-health-in-the-united-states/

It is surprising that no more Pennsylvania state hospitals have closed since I started this topic, though they are finally selling off the vacant Allentown buildings.


Norristown is closing in Oct

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4:35:33 PM - Thu, Aug 30th 2012
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Quote:Thomasp94 Thu 23rd 3:43 pm
I never did hear anymore on this issue, did anyone else?

I was doing some research online for a book I'm writing and the most recent statistic I could find was that as of 2009 there were approx 11 million adults with a serious mental illness in this country. http://blog.samhsa.gov/2012/04/18/mental-health-in-the-united-states/

It is surprising that no more Pennsylvania state hospitals have closed since I started this topic, though they are finally selling off the vacant Allentown buildings.



The problem with getting a reliable number is the number of people that go undiagnosed or have a concurrent substance abuse issue that over shadows their mental health issue. There is also debate in some circles whether post M.I. depression, non-stroke related dementia, and some other conditions should be listed as a medical statistic or a mental health statistic. Severity of impairment statistics are often linked to Social Security, medicare, and public aid statistics on diagnosis which do not always take all factors into account if there is enough medical evidence of a persons disability too. Samhsa does a good job of things, but they can't cover everything.


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