Mentally ill face barriers to care

[proud2BlibKansan]

Peace of mind difficult to find

Critics of system seek major changes

By JULIUS A. KARASH / The Kansas City Star

Imagine this. Your adopted daughter suffers from bipolar disease and the lingering effects of her biological mother’s drug and alcohol abuse. She’s in and out of the hospital, with stays cut short by insurance limitations. By the time she is 16, her $100,000 lifetime insurance benefit for mental health has maxed out. After a violent incident, you have her charged with assault so she can be placed under state supervision and continue to receive psychiatric care.

And then, while trying to live on her own, she attempts suicide — for the 11th time.

That is the reality faced by an Overland Park couple who are exhausted by a 15-year fight to get their daughter, now 20, the care she needs.

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Welcome to the ongoing battle for care that confronts more than 44 million Americans who suffer from diagnosable mental disorders. It is a health-care crisis that prompted six Cabinet-level federal departments this summer to launch an agenda to “transform” mental health care in America.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/12734063.htm

[The Witch]

1. kick

:kick: for the good work that people are doing and i work directly with them and know that they are doing GOOD WORK...

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. They are trying

and the system is a mess.

[moc]

2. It absolutely a crisis

My husband is a behavioral health provider; he's a clinical social worker in private practice. The vast majority of his patients are on Medicaid, most children and adolescents living in therapeutic foster care.

When the Texas budget had to be balanced, it was balanced partly on the backs of the poor and mentally ill in this state. Mental health services for adults on Medicaid were virtually wiped out.

It's not that much better in the private sector. As health insurance costs soar, many insurance plans are cutting mental health benefits as a way of controlling costs. It's shameful and short sighted, in my opinion.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Medicaid has been cut drastically in MO

especially mental health coverage.

The cuts were so drastic and are so unpopular that they may prove to be the end of the Republican governor.

[WatchWhatISay]

6. Social darwinism

Best just to get rid of those with needs, they just dont fit into the capitalist system.

Mental health care in this country is just dismal.

[Faygo Kid]

3. My tax dollars go to the neocon dream of Iraq. And to the estate tax cut.

And to interminable tax cuts for the very wealthy. And I weep for the tatters of our nation left by this most awful administration in American history. We will weep many times yet, I am afraid.

[melody]

7. Been there, done that - my son has been through the mill

It's an absolute disgrace what we do to the mentally ill in this country.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I am sorry

I have a family member too. I kind of know what you are going through.

[MountainLaurel]

8. And don't forget

That if you seek treatment for mental illness, you'll probably never be able to get life insurance, and in some cases health insurance.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Didn't know about the life insurance

that's a drag.

[MountainLaurel]

14. They put you through a full interrogation

If you note that you've sought treatment for depression on the application. (And since the HR person got a list of every employee or other covered person's visit to a doctor, it could easily get back to the insurance company.) They ask what medications and in what dosages and for what periods, visits to therapists, et al.

[H2O Man]

9. Insurance companies

push to have people's therapy cut back, and medications increased. By the time I retired, the push was for a major decrease in therapy, and instead seeing a psychiatrist for prescriptions, and a case manager to decrease the number/length of hospitalizations. I am convinced that the quality of services provided by outpatient, community-based clinics has continued to go down hill, based upon conversations with my old co-workers. Many of their complaints mirror those of my friends who work in factories.

[justiceischeap]

10. And the government says they're against assisted suicide...

It's just a subtle or not-so-subtle form of genocide. Without therapy, without medication, many mentally ill people often become violent towards themselves or others. Just like the Reagan era where thousands of mentally ill patients were released in the streets and are now homeless. So much for compassion.

It's funny how some people argue the Repug party isn't like Hitler. It seems the Repug party wants to allow hurricanes to wash away the poor and the mentally ill to off themselves to cleanse the masses, to make a more pure repug race.

I have medical benefits and sometimes have to choose between therapy and medication and food. If I let the meds go, then I sometimes have to go 2 weeks without them, then I go through withdrawals and feel like shit, then I become depressed, then it takes another 2 weeks or so for the meds to work again.

And some people wonder why the depressed kill themselves. I'm not saying it's solely for these reasons but I know in my case, it doesn't help. My meds help me see clearly and without them, everything is a fog. I don't function well or think straight. So to compound that problem, the federal government wants to make it harder to access good mental health care. Par for the course I suppose.

[Ladyhawk]

15. Withdrawals are horrible.

If I have to go a few days without my meds, I'm really NOT OK. And yes, the mental health care system is screwed up. I have no access to a decent psychiatrist. Some of my dosages are being lowered because Medi-Cal doesn't want to pay for them. I can't get Medi-Cal to cover a pain medication that actually works. In-patient care is so bad it actually makes you worse.

I've learned not to expect too much. :shrug:

[Chicago Democrat]

13. Happens all the time... people are warehoused in deplorable conditions

and abused and used and sucked dry and thrown away.... like chickens.



I HATE THESE PEOPLE!

nominated