On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 21:15:27 -0700, Jim Clark wrote: >Hi >I'm struck by the last sentence in Mike's quote from the panel. Is it >really the case that disempowerment is what leads people (in general or >just those with mental illness?) to be violent? How is that any less an >over-generalization and stigmatizing about poor people than asserting >that people with mental illness are likely to be violent?
I don't think that the article asserts that the reduction/degradation/elimination of publicly available sources (the rich can take care of their own) is what causes people with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder to be violent -- the article points out that these "consumers" in general are not violent and it is only those consumers who have a substance abuse problems that tend to have a higher rate of violence. I think that the article is trying to point out that if we are going to try to integrate the people with mental illness into the general population, then a certain level of services needs to be provided to make sure that they stay on appropriate medication, continue to learn how to deal effectively with problems or stressors in everyday life, and other supports that they need in order to engage in activities of daily living. If these services cannot be provided because of budgetary concerns, should one be surprised that consumers might stop taking their meds, might start to self-medicate with alcohol or illicit drugs, and might start to engage in behaviors that may be socially objectionable and possibly self-destructive as well as harmful to others? If the services are not there to prevent this cascade of negative events, isn't it clear that the lack of services played a critical role in allowing a series of bad events to occur? But what do I know, I'm not a clinician and I presume that a clinician on TiPS can explain this situation better than I. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=11048 or send a blank email to leave-11048-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
