It's about "Mental Health" and this country ignoring it

[OptimistesMaddie]

Starting with Ronnie Reagan closing mental health institutions. When Ronald Reagan was governor of California he systematically began closing down mental hospitals, later as president he would cut aid for federally-funded community mental health programs. It is not a coincidence that the homeless populations in the state of California grew in the seventies and eighties.


The Repuglican mentality is a root cause of what we see today. I would also say that this country was extreme in the early 1900's by allowing anyone to put a person in a mental institute and let them rot and be abused.

The pendulum swung the other way to where someone can check themselves in and can check themselves out even if they are a danger to themselves and others. (My family is living through this now). The mentally ill have to commit a crime to get real help.

Combine mentally ill with weapons and we get CO movie theatre shootings.

[SeattleGirl]

There is still such a stigma about mental illness in this country. It's not seen as an actual illness by many people, but as a weakness.

Years ago, I worked in the alcohol and drug treatment field, and one of my jobs was to assess people when they came in to see if they were addicted. Some of the questions on the assessment had to do with mental health issues as opposed to addiction and I'll tell you, if the people I was assessing thought I was implying that they were "crazy" (their word, not mine), they got really upset. (And I wasn't implying anything; just assessing their answers they gave.)

That stigma is a barrier to having more resources to help people, and to people accessing the resources that are already in existence. And not just them; sometimes friends, family members, co-workers, etc., also see the troubled person as "weak" and just want them to buck up or something. And on and on it goes.

[HopeOverFear]

(07-20-2012 06:52 PM)OptimistesMaddie Wrote:  Starting with Ronnie Reagan closing mental health institutions. When Ronald Reagan was governor of California he systematically began closing down mental hospitals

How ironic is that? The dude that shot him is living in a mental hospital here in DC. smh

[OptimistesMaddie]

(07-21-2012 12:06 PM)HopeOverFear Wrote:  

(07-20-2012 06:52 PM)OptimistesMaddie Wrote:  Starting with Ronnie Reagan closing mental health institutions. When Ronald Reagan was governor of California he systematically began closing down mental hospitals

How ironic is that? The dude that shot him is living in a mental hospital here in DC. smh

I didn't even think about that...

[Treestar]

So right wingers think we should actually just absorb this kind of thing? Accept that it's going to happen every once in a while and just live with it? That's what they seem to be saying, implicitly.

[OptimistesMaddie]

(07-21-2012 12:49 PM)Treestar Wrote:  So right wingers think we should actually just absorb this kind of thing? Accept that it's going to happen every once in a while and just live with it? That's what they seem to be saying, implicitly.

being proactive. sadly it will take one of their family members being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When we see these events with white males it's always a lone gunman. Have you noticed how much the media has focused on his education? On the other hand when it is a minority it's a thug.....this is part of the reason why we can't address issues in this country. We can't call the anti-American acts of the Teaparty - anti American. We can't call the shooting of Gabby Giffords Terrorism. The outing of a CIA agent we can't call it what it is. This is what needs to change.