Easier for mentally ill to get a gun than to get mental health care

[Hugabear]

"It's tragic that it is easier for the severely mentally ill to get a gun than adequate health care" - Michio Kaku, posted on Facebook.

It's true, and a damning commentary on our society. Health insurance companies typically don't like to cover mental health issues, or if they do, usually it's nowhere near adequate coverage. Mental counseling and medications can be quite expensive.

Until we have true, meaningful and comprehensive health reform, we can continue to see events like this past weekend and other mass shootings that we've seen in recent years.

And yes, I know you can't legally buy a gun if you're mentally ill. However, that assumes the individual has actually been diagnosed, and most mentally ill people have never received any help at all.

[safeinOhio]

1. Spot on.

K&R

[etherealtruth]

2. sadly true

K and R

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Rec'd for headline alone. n-t

[mzmolly]

9. Ditto.

n/m

[LibDemAlways]

4. What masquerades as "mental health care" these days - for

those who can even find it - is a psychiatrist prescribing meds after spending a few minutes with a patient. Totally inadequate. A close relative of mine was having serious mental issues and the family doctor was clueless as to where to turn. I had to do all the legwork to try to get him some kind of help, but it was all futile. I'll spare the details, but suffice to say it turned into a nightmare and ended with the patient's death.

[Fumesucker]

5. Health care is expensive..

Guns on the other hand are cheap.

I can buy a pretty damn good pistol for considerably less than a single month of premiums for crappy health insurance that I basically couldn't afford to use in the first place.

[Lindsay]

6. Succinct, true

and tragic.

K&R

[phasma ex machina]

7. Saint Ronnie put the mentally ill out on the street. The mentally ill people I know

receive too many prescription drugs. My town's "heroic" doctor seems to want to keep them drugged up, out of sight and out of mind.

[svsuman23]

8. even if he could have all the help paid for, would he GO for the treatment?

[LuvNewcastle]

10. That is so true.

Our local mental health clinic serves at least two counties and only has a handful of doctors and therapists to help all those people. It isn't a state or local agency of the government, although it does receive some state and local funds. It operates more like a charity and thankfully there are some good people who make sure it stays open. There is a constant threat of losing government funding, so the clinic cannot depend on it for support. When a patient begins treatment at the clinic, it typically takes 90 days to see a doctor. If you're looking for a charity to donate to, your local mental health clinics are a great choice. The people who benefit are some of the most needy in our society.

[badtoworse]

11. What makes you think they want help?

I've had two cases in my familyand both had to be dragged kicking and screaming

[Posteritatis]

13. And you can just generalize that to twenty percent of American population like it's a monolith. (nt)

[Martin Eden]

12. TRUE

indisputably TRUE

and, indisputably, that is a DAMNING TRUTH about the society in which we live

[Cerridwen]

14. Easier, cheaper, and less of a stigma attached. n/t

[provis99]

15. You CAN buy a gun if you've been diagnosed mentally ill.

I know, because I bought one in Indiana after being diagnosed a manic depressive. You just can't buy a gun after you've been involuntarily committed as a threat to yourself or society. Being totally nuts is no barrier to buying a gun, either practically or legally.

[Kaleva]

17. Why would you buy a gun if you've been diagnosed as manic depressive?

[gratuitous]

16. Priorities, people

It's far more socially acceptable to buy a gun (or 20) than it is to seek mental health care, or be perceived as needing mental health care. Guns are holy relics of the High Church of Redemptive Violence, our national religion.

[Cetacea]

20. +1k

Indeed.

[snot]

18. K&R'd

[Catherina]

19. Rec'd. Sadly true. Shamefully so. n/t

[Rage for Order]

21. I don't think it's easier...

But it is cheaper. All one has to do to get mental health care is call a psychiatrist or psychologist and make an appointment. How hard is that?

:shrug:

[Hugabear]

22. You make it sound like it's so easy

Please. What if you don't have any insurance, or if your insurance offers only minimal mental health coverage? Getting adequate mental help isn't cheap, and many of the medications are quite expensive.

[Rage for Order]

23. Well, that's why I said it's cheaper

You don't have to have insurance to see a psychiatrist. You can pay the $150 hourly rate out of pocket and bypass insurance companies altogether if you like. They do accept cash.

[Hugabear]

24. And if you don't happen to have that kind of money?

A couple of hours isn't going to do jack shit.

Fuck, with that reasoning, who needs health care reform. After all, everyone has access to health care, as long as they have plenty of money to pay for it.

[Rage for Order]

25. I didn't say it was cheap

Most people can't afford it if they have to pay for it all themselves, just like physical health care.

[Hugabear]

26. If it's not cheap, then it's not easy

Your point was that it's easy to get mental health coverage. However, by acknowledging that it's not cheap, you're proving my point that it's not easy. Unless you just happen to have a lot of money or really good insurance.

[badgerpup]

29. Dealing with mental illness is an ongoing process.

It's sorta like diabetes in that respect.

You can't cure it. You can manage it, you can control it, and in many cases you can live a fairly normal, productive life IN SPITE OF IT, but it is always there, and must be dealt with. Ignoring it, pretending it's not there will not make it go away.

Yes, I'm speaking from first-hand experience.

I take my meds, and I'm in counseling (have been for years); not because I'm so traumatized by a horrible childhood or bad experiences, but because I know that what I'm perceiving isn't always what's really happening, and I need a reality check. Also, it's difficult for me to deal with real live human beings on a continuous basis- they take more energy than I have available. It's far, far easier for me to isolate myself and just associate with my cats (only four; hoarding isn't part of my disorder). So I'm in counseling in order to remain human.

I probably will be in counseling for the rest of my life.
It's one of the tools that keeps me sane enough to function, to hold down a part-time job, to pay taxes, to contribute.

Yes, I'm struggling to do so. It ain't easy, but I'm doing it.

Like I said, ongoing process. :shrug:

[dreamnightwind]

34. Good luck

I wish you well in your struggles, sounds like a difficult road you walk. Wishing you all the best.

[badgerpup]

38. Thank you...

:hi:

It does have its ups and downs...:shrug:

[Maru Kitteh]

27. truth

[cali]

28. In Vermont, mental health coverage has parity with other coverage

<snip>
Five states — Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon and Vermont — have comprehensive parity laws that apply to all mental health and substance abuse disorders under private insurance plans, with no exemptions. In other states, parity often applies only to select groups, such as people with severe mental illness or state and local employees.
<snip>

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/568684_4

we also have a pretty good community mental health system that provides for those without insurance. And yes, we have very lax gun laws- the laxest in the nation, but we have the lowest incidence of gun violence.

[socialist_n_TN]

30. Yeah but Medicare for All including mental health care...................

is an extreme left wing position. Even socialistic. So we can't have that.

[Recursion]

31. So, naturally, the response is to make the gun *more* difficult to obtain

rather than making the mental health care less difficult to obtain...

[Hugabear]

39. It's really telling if that's your first reaction to my OP

Won't someone please stand up for those poor guns? :sarcasm:

[X_Digger]

32. But comprehensive mental health reform is HARD!

Therefore, we will instead propose another feel-good, do-nothing bit of legislation that will piss off a bunch of our supporters and likely lose more seats in congress.

Meanwhile, we step around the guy muttering to himself on the curb as we pat ourselves on the back, confident that we "did something" about the issue.

:sarcasm:

*sigh*

[Edweird]

33. But now they are required to purchase the healthcare they can't afford to access.

Hooray 'change'!

[Taitertots]

35. That is a fairly dishonest comparison if you want to consider cost as an aspect

It is easier to get mental health care than it is to buy a gun. It costs more to get mental health care because it is a life long service. It costs more to get anyone to do anything that much.

[Hugabear]

40. Once again, there's that COST aspect...

And if you can't afford mental health care, or if you don't have adequate insurance that covers it? Mental health care that you can't afford isn't really an "easy" option, is it?

[Overseas]

36. Sad K&R. //nt

[Raschel]

37. +++++