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 need to lead in establishing an environment of reality and acceptance of treatment with out the ignorant stigma of shame. Mental difficulties are just as legitimate as a cut needing stitches or a heart attack. Yet individuals who seek help for a psychological problem are still looked upon as flawed and blamed for not becoming able to handle their own difficulties.

We want public education to encourage individuals to go for help when they recognize feeling out–of-control or in a scenario where they need counseling, support and suggestions. Some problems are chemical imbalances and frequently medications can reduce symptoms or stabilize the individual, if the individual takes the medication. They don’t usually take them simply because the medications have such uncomfortable side effects that the patient believes that the disease is less complicated to cope with than the drugs.

Other troubles are situational and do not need to be medicated but brought to the surface, worked out and resolved. The greatest way to do this is through “talk therapy.” There are many modalities that efficiently work to educate and empower people to stop repeated patterns of destructive and self-deprecating behaviors. Being molested as a child is 1 example. There is no drug to resolve the damage accomplished and continuing negative effects on adult relationships like trust problems, guilt, shame and sexual confusion and dysfunction. These problems require to be resolved by other indicates.

Medicating such a wound just exacerbates the dilemma and doesn’t resolve or heal the wound. Neither does behavior modification.

Grief is comparable problem. Normally it isn’t pathological, yet it hurts like hell for a lengthy time. Medication isn’t suggested. Talking about the pain and expressing the hurt is a healthier way to deal with grief. Realizing what to anticipate, the hot spots and the time frame is empowering. Just understanding that the immediate pain will heal itself is component of the healing procedure.

Historically, we as a nation have attached a stigma of shame on the individual suffering from a mental issue and on the family. I know since 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. Typically they had been much less than perfect, but rather than reform them we dumped the patients onto the street. Most homeless people have severe mental wellness difficulties and so do most inmates in jail. These days when a individual is identified with serious mental difficulties there is no place to put him or her, couple of lengthy-term beds and certainly not an adequate quantity are available for the mentally ill. Half way houses substitute as a safe location to be housed, but they are rarely secure. And inmates in jail do not get adequate mental wellness assist to prevent recidivism, returning to jail following they are released.

Then in the 1990′s the Wellness 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 extra sessions need to be approved by the HMO just before they would be paid. This was the death knoll to effective therapy for the severely mentally ill.

Behavior modification is fundamentally a band-aid kind 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 quite structured modality but is not realistic for more severely wounded folks, some will 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 funds to adequately fund Community Mental Well being Programs. Many individuals fall between the cracks even when identified and mandated to get out patient therapy. Mental wellness practioners are overloaded, overwhelmed and underpaid. It is a job with high burn out and high turn over. A patient might start with 1 therapist, who moves on and the patient is transferred and has to begin all over with somebody else.

Private insurance limits the number of visits they will pay for by way of reimbursement and co-payments. They closely monitor the number of visits, that are regulated by HMO staff. A mental wellness 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, constantly much less.

Mental well being must become a greater priority in this country to stop innocent people from becoming victims. All of society is responsible for this tragedy. We need to demand much more education, much better treatment and prevention techniques to steer clear of similar incidents in the future.

This is a broken system and needs to be fixed. Now!