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My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

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Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#91

Post by MartinCron »

fusiongyro wrote: post #54
ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when it makes both ethical and financial sense. It saves money on a small scale because no one's trying to defraud it yet.

The article I'm remembering actually addressed that. The program was limited to a very small number of people--tens, or fewer. They actually had one that wrecked his apartment every week, and still it was cheaper to fix it back up than to let this guy back on the street, where he would incur about $1M a year in ER bills. One of the big objections to this program came from the fact that the scale was so limited.

One of the big objections to this program came from the fact that the scale was so limited.

You would think that this kind of operation would get cheaper at scale. You might not need 2X wrecked-apartment-repairmen for 2X people housed.

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#92

Post by Daniel_Newby »

debacle wrote: post #10

You can blame the schools for misdiagnosing ADHD, and you can blame them for a poor IEP, but you can't blame them for a child not having a normal life due to one of the most tragic diseases known to man. Schizophrenia is not the kind of disease you can treat with an IEP, and it sounds like the author's son fell out of the system from a very young age. Trying to blame anything but genetics and development for his son'…

> ADHD or blindness are not even in the same room a schizophrenia.

25% of prisoners are there because of ADHD. In aggregate it probably causes much more harm than schizophrenia.

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#93

Post by dchuk »

gojomo wrote: post #86
Shorel wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both alcohol and tobacco are legal, and have worse health consequences than marijuana. The only real reason is that 90-70 years ago, the white people smoke tobacco and the black people smoke marijuana.

Do you have evidence that alcohol and tobacco are worse in the specific context of schizophrenia?

This research paper seems to suggest that at least alcohol does: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dcare/pdfs/fp/GreenAlan-Alcoholand...

Even if Alcohol doesn't specifically make schizophrenia worse, alcohol abuse is the most common comorbid disorder of schizophrenics and generally exacerbates all mental health problems to some extent.

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#94

Post by efa »

zwieback wrote: post #61

My cousin has (had?) schizophrenia. Despite the best efforts of his wealthy family and a willing mental health system in Germany he disappeared and we haven't heard anything in a very long time. He lived on the streets for a number of years but it's very hard to get schizophrenics on the needed medication and even harder to keep them on it. I don't think there's a policy solution for this.

But wait! I thought it was because the United States was evil. And all other countries have it figured out!

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#95

Post by acroyear »

jessaustin wrote: post #85
acroyear wrote: post #71

Author's first impulse is to look to the state for the care of his child. WRONG!!!! YOU and your family are the primary folks responsible for this kid. Your wife had about the same chance of success as any set of teachers or state gov't goons but with much more incentives. What the hell was she doing? (probably getting her 'career' on - woo hoo!) Why are ppl so apt to think that state employees are miracle workers? C…

I'd speculate that anyone "political" enough to be elected to the legislature at the tender age of 25 will never be able to step outside the mentally-crippling assumptions of the total-services state. Note the unrecognized contradiction between "the state should provide this service and provide it well" and "when I was in charge of things for the state, the LAST thing I or any of my colleagues cared about was providi…

exactly; he's just a bloke like you and I - not some super-helper-expert-because-i-work-for-the-state guy.

I'm not saying we shouldn't expect any return for our tax dollars; but certainly not as the primary source of help (read 'assistance'). also, perhaps the problem shouldn't go after our tax dollars in the first place .. it's a warm/fuzzy idea to 'help', but you're taking my dollars and supposing a solution to which you have no idea what you're doing. stop it please ;)

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#96

Post by mc32 »

Shorel wrote: post #73
hristov wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a lot of research showing that marijuana speeds up the onset of schizophrenia in patients that are already genetically predisposed to it. See: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2005559-2,00....

Both alcohol and tobacco are legal, and have worse health consequences than marijuana. The only real reason is that 90-70 years ago, the white people smoke tobacco and the black people smoke marijuana.

In the US, it was more or less unregulated till the 50s/60s. Also, your claim does not explain European countries' stand on it or that of African nations.

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#97

Post by lwat »

aes256 wrote: post #14
showerst wrote: post #2

"Every year, one in every five children and one in every four adults has a diagnosable mental illness. A quarter of all mental illnesses are considered serious." 1/16 adults having a serious mental illness seemed awfully high to me, but I went and looked it up and that may actually be low-balling it: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-coun...

I don't really like the term 'mental illness', not so much because of the stigma attached to it, but because the term implies there is some 'normal' from which only a small subsection of the population deviates. In reality, there is no 'normal'. There is no one person with perfect mental health; perfect clarity of thought, perception, of feeling and action. Everyone, to put things bluntly, is a little fucked up. Thus…

A mental illness is a mental abnormality that significantly impacts on your quality of life or the lives of those around you. That's the definition.

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#99

Post by mammalfriend »

cletus wrote: post #64

Things like this are easy to say: > If I were a legislator today, I’d mandate — and provide funding to ensure — that every teacher receive training in recognizing symptoms of mental illnesses. but teachers aren't psychiatrists or clinical psychologists and can't really be expected to be. I was recently watching a program talking about the somewhat controversial theory that schizophrenia (and other mental disorders) a…

Responding to your first comment about teachers not being psychiatrists, I agree with that observation but disagree that this means teachers should not be trained to recognize the signs of mental and other disabilities. The tendency today is often to ignore the problem, given there is little penalty for failing to intervene. But there are heavy costs to individuals and society.

As an example, when I was growing up I was extremely nearsighted but didn't get glasses until I was out of the home and in college. I was unable to read the chalkboard from K through 12. Yet no teacher intervened to suggest glasses to my parents, or to suggest I see an eye doctor. Only when a college prof noticed that I was squinting my eyes at the board and said "hey man, you need glasses!" did I get my eyes examined and discover what the world looked like in focus.

Along the way, everyone from the public school nurses who administered eye and hearing tests to a DMV examiner fudged my eye test results to "help" me pass those tests. And I was pretty good at doing things with limited vision. I know I'm not alone in this regard -- many children find a way to get by with a range of limitations because they don't know there is an alternative.

But we're living in the modern world, and many limitations can be controlled given early intervention. And teachers are well positioned to observe children over extended periods of time, while doctor visits are often 5 minutes ling and most children will never see a psychiatrist at all.

Re: My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

#100

Post by mcguire »

fusiongyro wrote: post #81
debacle wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 2012 - no one in the world should go homeless, unclothed, or hungry. It's inhumane. But I don't think that's what this article was about.

The author is arguing that his son would not be homeless if institutional care had not be shut down, not that his son would be a productive member of society. It's practically tautological.

"The author is arguing that his son would not be homeless if institutional care had not be shut down"

Actually, he isn't. The only institutional care he mentions in the What I realize now section is "supportive short-term and long-term community housing and treatment", which doesn't sound like institutional care, in the sense of "When he was in jail, with its regular routines and meals, Tim usually stabilized". There was a reason why total institutions were, well, total.

In fact, his "if I were a legislator today" comments are essentially the same as the "I jumped at the opportunity to" do actions in the 1980's.

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