Institutionalizing the mentally ill

The city’s population of mentally deranged street people may explode because of new regulations signed by Gov. Cuomo last week that forbid privately run adult homes from accepting new residents, advocates warned.

“Hospitals can’t discharge to us,” said Jeffrey Edelman, who runs adult homes in Queens and The Bronx. “Within a week, the hospitals will be starting to get backed up, and they are going to have big problems.”

The change is part of the state’s efforts to comply with a federal court ruling that found institutionalizing the mentally ill in adult homes wrongly segregates them.

An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 mentally ill people, the majority in New York City, could be affected.

“My residents need reminders several times a day to take their medications and see their doctors,” Edelman said. “My residents used to be in homeless shelters and went from hospital to hospital.”

 

For Families of Mentally Ill, Mixed Feelings Over Push Away From Adult Homes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/nyregion/09mental.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

Today's state hospitals are poorly run, with female nurses and therapists unable to keep the lunatics in check or treat their illnesses. There are few incentives for good behavior and, except for forced medication, the staff are powerless. I've personally worked as a volunteer in a mental hospital and I was blown away by the insanity going on there and the lack of realism on the part of the nurses. Psychiatrists only prescribed medicine and stayed away from the living facilities most of the time.

Patients were insulting the staff freely and refusing to clean up the mess they made everyday. Nurses merely administrated medication and spend the rest of the time hugging vulnerable female patients (in spite of the No Physical Contact rule) and trying to protect them from dangerous psychopaths. Therapists were clearly not up to the task and didn't really care about was happening as long as they got their salary. I'm sure that if measures were taken to run those places with an iron fist, lots of taxpayer dollars could be saved. Patients drank huge quantities of coffee to reverse the sedating effects of anti-psychotics.

Believe it or not, there were a handful of patients who confided to me that they were feigning serious mental illness to get access to schizophrenic and mentally retarded pussy. One told me flat out that he had never had more sex than since he was institutionalized. Nothing was done about it. Unlike prison, mental hospitals are not always gender segregated. I witnessed an argument a patient had with a psychiatrists, trying to convince him to let him spend the night with his schizophrenic "girlfriend". Most sex took place in the bathrooms and smoking areas.

 

I have a dear friend that is in a convalescent hospital. It's very like the scene described above.

The culture removed the idea that there is any absolute morality, it's all relevant. That leaves us in an abyss of neverending negotiation and lots of very opportunistic people taking full advantage of the situation.

I did a very rewarding study on psychopaths to learn to spot them and negotiate a world where they are free to run their agendas. I've a few to experiment on, find out how they respond to things, etc. Zero tolerance!! That is what works. I stare them down every time I see them.

I'm advocating we diagnose psychopaths using the imaging technology we now have, put their faces up on the web before they do any serious crime, not after they have destroyed dozens of people.

 

I've worked in hospitals, physical therapy depts., and nursing homes. Gone into their psych wards as a professional more than once. The horror stories have their times, but with one exception I've seen only heroic efforts on the part of staff.

A lot of work needs to be done about mental health. And I certainly agree there are people who should be off the streets. Psychopaths I agree should be dealt with pre-emptively.

But also know... 50% of people will have a significant brain injury during their lives. [this is based on a broad definition, including clinical depression as a 'brain injury']. 30% of us will have 2 significant brain injuries, and 15% will have 3 or more. All it takes is having your brain whacked in a certain place, say during a car fender bender, and you could be one of those functionally mentally ill people for some time, likely years. Zero tolerance?

I had two brain injuries... first I caught a respiratory infection just walking through a hospital to visit a sick friend. Ran such high fevers I had a mild brain injury. Then my Dr recommended a psychotropic med to speed the healing and one pill, just one time, 'pushed me over the edge' and I had a severe brain injury. I was one of those people you'd look at with zero tolerance, without a doubt. It took four years and a ton of cognitive rehab, etc. etc., before the neurospychologist certified me as functionally normal. But I will never be as functional as before, and there are people who used to be friends, who still won't talk to me because of things I did when my brain was broken. I can’t help that. Once people have seen you as other than normal, there is just something instinctive that rejects the abnormal. At least for many people.

Mental health issues are hard to have empathy for when most of us can not imagine losing such an essential part of who we are. But just live long enough…..