So what can be done to promote mental health care

[Juche]

This post on KOS was really touching.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/10/112057/839/175/682250

What can we do? the way I figure it it'll take 2 generations to get decent care for the mentally ill. Children's minds are pretty malleable, and as an example almost everyone under the age of 18 (born in 1990) has grown up in an environment where gay rights were at least considered worth considering. Before that they weren't even an issue and were a foreign concept. This is reflected in opinion polls. As time goes on people who have always lived with the idea that gay people deserve dignity make up the majority, while those who haven't die of old age.



The point is that we have to start the idea that people who suffer from neurological illnesses are human beings who deserve dignity and whose diseases can be treated before we can even begin giving them that dignity and treatment, and it'll take a while.

So I figure it'll be decades until the mentally ill get somewhat decent treatment in society because first we have to start promoting the concept that, yes, people who suffer from neurological disorders are human beings and those disorders can be treated. What can we do? What can be done to promote tolerance? There are no TV shows where the mentally ill are perceived as anything less than either totally disabled and incurable or violent. FTR, with medical treatment, nutritional therapy and social therapy mental illness is highly treatable, just as treatable as heart disease. And long term studies on diseases like schizophrenia show that long term prognosis is decent. And that was before the advances we have seen recently.

http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Inform_Yourself/About_Mental_Illness/About_Mental_Illness.htm

http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb00/schizophrenia.html

I know in my case after I made a good recovery and went to college, after I graduated I feared someone would find out about my past and I'd never find a job because of it and/or due to my work history gap. Luckily I did find a job and it has been a major factor in promoting mental health (ie making me feel human and having a sense of dignity), but it doesn't offer health insurance. Now I don't think I qualify because when I tried to apply it asked 'have you seen a doctor in the last 5 years about a mental health condition'. If I apply and get rejected, then it'll be even harder to get health insurance and all I want is high deductible catastrophic coverage.

Anyway, its all shit. Most mentally ill people are abandoned or ridiculed instead of treated, then when you do start to recover and want to reintegrate into society there are endless barriers to employment and healthcare there as well.

really, what can a person do?

[JerseygirlCT]

1. start with a requirement for parity

from health insurers. Hopefully get to universal care.

Far too many people need treatment, and even want treatment, and can't get it. That's a crime.

[EFerrari]

2. A person can network with advocates in their local community

and with web based community. :hi:

[pacalo]

3. Thank you for posting, Juche.

Every link that you provided is excellent & I've bookmarked each.

:hug:

[pacalo]

4. For what it's worth: Someone was here at DU last week, undervaluing KOS

& its strength with readership. The KOS diary that you posted, "Neglected, Deprived, Shunned - A clinical interview with a social castaway" had 195 readers' comments.

I'd say that's a pretty large group of caring folks.