Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Good show on mental illness
I have been fortunate to have done a lot of work with the National Alliance on Mental Illness over the past few years. They do some of the most important advocacy work in the world. Yesterday, there was a really great show on Fresh Air on mental illness. I have included a link here. It was on a subject I have thought about a lot: society's drive to protect privacy and personal choice in medical matters has driven us to a point where those with mental illness cannot get help because they do not believe they are ill. So they end up in jail etc. Listen to it...you'll learn how hard it is for familes of those with mental illness.
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2 comments:
I didn't check the link but I don't think its so much "society's drive to protect privacy and personal choice in medical matters" that is the problem so much as society's screwed up conception of what does and does not qualify as a medical matter. Society has not been so keen on protecting personal choice and privacy when it comes to drug abuse for instance (the drug war being the number one biggest justification for the eradication of civil liberties in this country). Perhaps if drug addiction were properly recalssified as a medical problem rather than a criminal one, other kinds of mental illness would also be identified an treated appropriately.
Listen to it. I mean the biggest problem is that the doctors will acknowledge that they are sick, they they are delusional, even that the likelyhood they might commit a crime or kill themselves is high, but they cannot make them stay unless the patient DIRECTLY threatens themselves or someone else IN THE DOCTOR'S PRESENCE. It's riddiculous. They could have spent all day telling their mother or father they are going to kill themselves, pacing around with a knife or a gun and if the doctors do not see it, they cannot legally hold them. I agree that society does not consider mental health issues medical problems, but the result is somewhat different.
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