Re: UMC Emergency room sucks.

BR--

You have got to be kidding. Although I am sure that a small minority of
mentally ill homeless people choose to avoid institutions, the vast
majority has no choice in the matter. The very acutely ill
schizophrenics or depressives are quickly treated and released. There
simply are not enough beds.

And as to exactly who has the responsibility to care for these poor
souls--

Insurance is woefully lacking for long-term care, and schizophrenia is
a LONG-TERM illness. So let's say you have a son with the disease. He
is hospitalized for 4-5 days and released on powerful drugs that make
him into a zombie--such that he eventually refuses to take them . He
has a remission, kills your cat, runs down the street naked, etc. What
do you do? You try to get him readmitted, but your insurance tells you
he has used up his allotted psychiatric coverage.

Or more commonly he outgrows your insurance plan altogether, i.e., over
18 and cannot go to school. Can you and your wife care for an overt
schizophrenic? No! Can you afford to pay for his long-term
institutionalization? I doubt it. I know I couldn't. So you are forced
to turn him out on his own. Can he get a job? Nope. Where does he eat
and sleep between episodes of his crazies and stints in the county
jail? Shelters are very limited, and do not put up with really sick
people. He sleeps under bridges and underpasses. He eats out of trash
cans.

If that doesn't make a case for our government to support institutions
for the mentally ill, I don't know what does. You conservatives have
this idealization that everybody can take care of themselves, and if
they don't appear to be able to, it is because they choose not to. Well
you are wrong. Read the history of the elderly in this country before
Social Security. If you weren't lucky enough to have children to take
care of you, and hadn't been able to save or work for a pension, you
starved. The mentally ill are in this boat today.

Tom
BR Eagle wrote:
> <doctcw@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1122740306.838344.99490@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Mental illness is the most neglected element in our healthcare system.
> > After they practically closed the state hospitals in the 1970's, the
> > really sick have been left to fend for themselves. The homeless are
> > largely outcasts from our former system of state provided aid to the
> > mentally ill.
> >
> > Tom
> >
> Doc, (and others)
> Can you explain mental illness? Is it alcoholism, addiction to gambling,
> drugs, or whatever?
> Is it the inability to make reasonable choices? Is there a cure?
> I'm just wondering how many (percentage wise) of the homeless are homeless
> b/c they aren't willing (and I suggest they are ABLE) to do what they'd have
> to do to participate in society? My belief is that many make a rational
> choice to be homeless because they prefer that lifestyle. (I know many
> don't want to be homeless...but there is help for them) Before you go
> beating me over the head, think of the *advantages* of being homeless. They
> may not add up for you or me, but these people have different values...Maybe
> they see the benefits of living outside of society as being greater than the
> costs that are associated with being a productive member?
> To quote Bill O'Reilly, "What says you?"

.

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