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On Sat, 13 Jan 2001 08:38:03 PST, Gerald Minsk wrote: It has been mentioned privately that the mental health system itself is somewhat responsible, due to its triggering the episode. The fact that this man did not have appropriate case management or — I’m just guessing — someone to talk to occasionally, might have helped. Coulda, woulda, shoulda’s are somewhat moot, at this point.The responsibility of the system is not moot. Serious damage has been done and the best we can do now is provide comfort and assistance to those hurt by all of this AND do what we can to prevent this type of episode from happening again. If you read the article you will see that the client was not being seen regularly. His brother (a police officer) contacted the system about the client’s deteriorating condition and the system did not even return the call, let alone contact the client. There is not even a Director for the MH department! The system in many small rural counties is collapsing. What we can do now is lobby for more voluntary, appropriate treatment. We can advocate for better training for clinicians so they know how to listen and help without triggering. We can work to educate clients on how to deal with a seriously flawed system. We can ask that everyone have someone they can talk to, be that a peer or a professional. There is a lot more the system should be doing and much of it would not take a huge amount of additional money. As for the forced treatment aspect of this. Heck it doesn’t look like the system in that county was even set up to monitor at-risk people to have some idea when there was a problem developing. Besides that, they have to take people to the Bay Area [!] for treatment. MH in rural counties is often a joke. That needs to change. I don’t know the exact facts surrounding this case but it seems to me that the system was so incapable of providing services to people with mental illness that they should be held culpable in the damage done. Of course the legislature in its wisdom has given those in the system immunity from liability. This is so stupid. Richard Ratledge “Dick” | ||||||||
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