Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Mental Illness That Effects Us All

'I Am Adam Lanza's Mother'

This heartbreaking article illustrates the gap in the Mental Health system. This boy in the article is now of the age where his mother has no legal control. (That is for the people who acknowledge their child has a problem with mental illness. I worked in Special Education where many parents refused to accept their child was mentally ill even after the teachers and schools tried to tell them they had problems. There is also a lack of and a vague understanding of what constitutes mental illness and what is being odd, peculiar and eccentric.) 

After 18 years old, he does not have to comply if he does not want to... include being made to go to a psychiatrist/therapy, take or comply to medication, and go to and remain in a facility due to 'patient's rights'. Therapy does not cure severe mental illness. Patients Rights were established that gave all the power of care to the patient. The only way he can be held is if he commits a crime. He is legally able to go 'AMA' (against medical advice). Then there is the 'who pays for it' problem. The States closed the residential mental hospitals down. Mental hospitals will only keep them on a temporary basis as insurance does not cover long-term care. If they have no insurance, they are out there floating around. We are not always talking mentally deficient people, we are talking very bright people who can 'look' and 'talk' like they are sane to hide it. Look at the UniBomber and the Batman shooter in CO. This is the 'Mental Health gap'. What we see in all of these from the Senator shooter through this latest, I believe is Schizophrenia, a personality disorder and state of psychosis that can be genetic or induced by drugs. Symptoms tend to increase in late teens/early twenties. This is why taking guns away does not solve the bigger problem. The Unibomber used bombs. I hope this does not upset you as that is not my intention. This is just my opinion on the matter as a Mental Health provider in the trenches.






     
'I Am Adam Lanza's Mother'
Source: stumbleupon.com
Written by Liza Long, republished from The Blue Review Friday's horrific national tragedy -- the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut -- has ignited a new discussion on violence in America.

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