Hi Mike is correct to point out the more complete presentation in the article itself. I was just responding to the last comment emphasizing disempowerment in his post. On the matter of "money changes everything," I was curious about the state of mental health funding and services in the USA since it is known that the USA spends more per capita on health care than most other developed countries and the article only alluded to relative changes due to government cutbacks. I was also struck by the fact that the victim was very poorly paid by a company with a contract for $43 million (if memory serves me right). It would be interesting to know what percentage of that $43 million went to non-service costs. I found an interesting summary of relevant statistics at http://www.mentalhealthresearch.ca/Publications/Documents/AMHB_Statistics_pktbk07_eng.pdf The USA actual spends about an average percent of total health care spending on mental health (7.5%, p. 51) relative to the comparison countries. Canada spends 5%, UK about 12%. But given larger base for USA (i.e., larger health care expenditures), USA would rank higher on per capita expenditures on mental health. Not clear what an "ideal" figure would be, and of course this includes both public and private expenditures, which could mask considerable inequities in spending. Hollywood alone (Charlie Sheen?) must add considerably to USA expenditures. In any case, the amount of money in the "system" appears to be not out of line with other countries, although perhaps there is room for improvement in allocation. Given the difficulty of modifying the health care system in the USA, I'm not too optimistic about radical changes any time soon. Moreover, USA has more psychiatric beds (p. 31) than comparison countries despite trend to transfer services to communities. Not clear that everyone would have equal access to these beds. With respect to mental health professionals, USA has average per capita number of psychiatrists (p 33) and psychologists (p 35) but markedly fewer psychiatric nurses (p 37) and social workers (p 39). Latter might perhaps be ideally expected to provide the kinds of service involved in monitoring and staffing group homes? So, money might indeed change everything, IF properly distributed. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca
>>> "Mike Palij" <m...@nyu.edu> 18-Jun-11 7:45 PM >>> 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: j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=11048 or send a blank email to leave-11048-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.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=11050 or send a blank email to leave-11050-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
