Health-Medical
After Six Years A Mother’s Pain And Anger Remain
March 12, 2017 
The following is from a woman in Michigan, but could be from anywhere. The author lost her son to suicide following numerous attempts and pleas for help.
I have shed more tears than some, but I have experienced more joy than many. A little baby boy came into our life. He made me a Mom. He gave me beautiful memories and yes, some grief too, but he allowed me to feel more love than I knew possible.
As quickly as he came into my life, he left it. Now I grieve as much as I had loved. And I am angry.
Mental illness is running rampant and yet basically ignored. Innocent people are dying daily at the hand of the afflicted because this Country considers it unimportant until there is a mass murder by someone who was schizophrenic, delusional, an addict or depressed. Even Then they are considered the scum of the earth.
When will we recognize that instead of judging people with mental problems we find a way to help them? Stop letting them fall through the cracks and fund mental health. Lansing Firefighter Dennis Rodeman would be alive today had there been ample staff to conduct the follow up of the guy who plowed him down.
I am angry my son had to die. He sought help and was ignored. Three times he was on a three day hold and shuttled out early when he decided he didn’t want to be there. Mom and Dad had no say because of HIPPA. Even when we got a court order that he was suicidal, he was released. Then angry that we had him locked up. No medical professional gave a damn. His life had no value. He was just another one of the several people they see every day but had no funding to do anything for them.
Just like any disease, mental health needs funding. So, as the Affordable Care Act is repealed and reformed, press your Congressman to include Mental Health in covered, pre-existing conditions that have financial support behind it.
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Comments & Discussion
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Mar 12, 2017, 8:59 pm
Amen! In the insurance business I used to call the provisions for mental health the “don’t give a damn” provisions. Often there was a limit of a few thousand dollars of coverage payable, less than the cost to set a broken arm.
Mar 14, 2017, 3:34 am
We should not be fooled by all the false advertising. Truth is most mental health problems are not curable. The advertising is posted by the businesses who want us to funnel more money into their broken but very profitable system. Serious mental illness will always return if triggered or if treatment is halted. It is for this reason the insurance companies avoid the bottomless pitfall. If you want insurance to pay for everyone’s everything the premiums for each of us will be about $100,000 a year. (Take 20% of GDP and divide it into people who buy insurance.)
So what should we do?
1) Provide limited insurance coverage to handle acute mental health crisis for otherwise normal people. Limited keeps everyone’s premiums reasonable.
2) Direct government funding of treatment, support, and housing of those judged chronically ill and unable to fit into society.
3) Criminalize drinking by people needing frequent mental health care. Because booze is the core problem for nearly all frequent flyers in the rubber room. Criminalize means crossbar motel to get clean sober and forced meds so society can be safe from them.
4) Force adherence to outpatient medication regiments for specified dangerous diagnosis cases. Just like they do for TB patients. (Yes they do, TB law is very old law from before political correctness was invented.) Why so harsh? Because they typically only have a crisis after they stop taking meds.
5) Most everyone in our prisons is there because they have an out of control crazy problem. Prisons need to be split into the sane and the insane. It requires different methodologies of rehabilitation.
How heartless of me? So sorry but mentally ill people are not warm fuzzy puppies. They are harmful. Like the lady’s story highlights, nearly every problem crazy person has been on the radar for a long time. We as a society have been far too concerned with their rights rather than the rights of their victims. Ask any cop who they’re dealing with all night long. There are several examples in the Boise news and even a local murder at the hands of someone not on the meds or not in jail.
Mar 14, 2017, 4:03 pm
A lot, if not most, of the root cause of mental illness is a simple byproduct of profit-at-any-cost Industrial Society.
The non-communal living, chemically poisoned, car addicted, industrial agriculture disaster we lovingly refer to as the American Way of Life creates externalities our corrupt politicians ignore.
The worst of the human wreckage is caused by not treating drug abuse, even though people beg for it.
I’d imagine that the $54 billion Trump wants to gift to the most bloated military in the world would fix most all mental illness and homelessness for decades. The central problem lies in the fact that the very wealthy can profit from endless wars, but not from helping people.