America’s healthcare system for those with mental illness gets a D

[pilgrimm]

This just confirms what many familiar with the system already know…it’s disgraceful.

March 1, 2006 The 230-page report, including individual state narratives and scoring tables, is available online at www.nami.org/grades. The report calls on states to make smarter investment choices through proven, cost-effective practices, and to link taxpayer funding to performance and individual outcomes.
"Grades are more than report cards," said NAMI executive director Michael J. Fitzpatrick. "They reflect standards that help people recover, and choices being made by governors and legislatures every day. States doing well in the report have developed a common vision and political will to move their treatment systems forward."
For the first time, the report confirms in detail what a presidential commission appointed by President George W. Bush has called "a system in shambles" and what the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recently called a "chasm" between promise and practice. Grades were calculated by scoring 39 criteria, based in part on a survey of state mental health agencies conducted in October-December 2005.
Check your state here:
http://www.nami.org/gtstemplate.cfm?section=grading_the_states&lstid=679

[RagingInMiami]

1. It's a fucking crime

And meanwhile people still refuse to accept the fact that we have one of the worst healthcare systems in the world.

[pilgrimm]

2. It is a fucking crime

I think people may be staring to get wise to just how bad the health care is in this country. Unfortunately, people are almost powerless to do anything about it in the face of the big drug and insurance companies.

[RagingInMiami]

3. Healthcare is going to be the next huge rights movement in this country

We've had women's rights and civil rights movements that amended the constitution. I believe healthcare will be next, where every American will be guaranteed basic healthcare.

After all, you can argue that "promote the general welfare" in the opening lines of our constitution has been ignored for too long.

But it's going to have to get worse before it gets better. So brace yourself, and find an international pharmacy that is discrete and reputable.

[NMMNG]

4. Pathetic

But the sad reality is that people with mental illnesses are one of the "throwaway" segments of our society. The general population is not interested in providing quality care to them, they just want them out of sight and out of mind, at the lowest cost possible. Therefore the services they recieve are often marginal at best.

It shouldn't be this way.

[peacebuzzard]

5. True!! I'm custodian for sis who's been MR since an infant.

We're in our 50s and it has been an uphill battle since I became responsible after parents deceased and it was only myself claiming responsibility.
She also has bipolar and schizophrenia. It is a static condition and my learning curve has been long. But most of all their are no health care systems readily in place to assist and I consider myself adept at research and information gathering but her complicated health situation vs. resources available has been a huge barrier.
Every day is a new day. She so far has been kept out of institutions but this has been a financial devastation as well as taken a huge toll on my health trying to juggle my life and bills (I do have a life)...

[tibbir]

6. I'm on Medicare and suffer from mental illness

I was surprised when I first joined to find that, rather than the usual 80/20 split, Medicare pays only 50% of outpatient mental health care. If you have to go to a stand alone mental hospital you are covered for 190 days in a lifetime. Period.

And I'm afraid this is only the begining.