Shhh…
I’m not telling anyone except you guys, but I’ve discreetly started a blog for the Prison Society. It’s called Correctional Forum, and though I think it’ll be less fun than this blog (my PW bosses have a good sense of humor), it will be interesting nonetheless.
Covered topics will include the death penalty, sentencing, crime, prison conditions, re-entry, overcrowding, prosecutorial misconduct, international justice, solitary confinement, supermax … you know, fun stuff like that. And Paris Hilton!
You’ll recognize some strategies, like Tuesday’s International, which has some TTWS echoes. On this blog, I’ve preferred to keep things flexible so we can disregard the categories if we want to. There it’ll be more regular, so if you’re sick of my inconsistencies, it’ll be the perfect place for you.
liz | 5:56 PM | Uncategorized
True confession: Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Yesterday I bought Tinsel the hamster a Hamster Potty, and I’m so happy about it, even though so far Tinsel hasn’t paid the slightest bit of attention to it.
liz | 3:54 PM | Uncategorized
Lear Bet
King Lear has never been one of my favorite Shakespeare offerings. And as far as mental illness goes, I prefer Hamlet because you get two for the price of one–Hamlet and Ophelia (pictured here, in a beautiful painting by Millais. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use this image).
Thanks to Masale.Wallah for the below link. I love it when shrinks get literary.
Diagnosing Lear
liz | 11:58 AM | Uncategorized
Short, and to the point
I have such a hard time writing short, but this editorial, from the Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal, really shows you how it’s done:
Jail time is no solution to mental illness
Imprisoning the afflicted only perpetuates the cycle
The Marion County Correctional Facility is supposed to be a jail, not a mental hospital. But many of its inmates are there in part because of mental illness.
They can’t afford private mental health care or won’t accept what little public assistance is available. And they wind up in jail because they commit crimes.
Chris Hoy, Marion County’s jail commander, can’t say for sure how many of the 19,000 inmates jailed yearly have mental illnesses — he guesses about one inmate in three. His small staff can only evaluate the “worst of the worst,” he says. Psychotropic medications to treat the inmates cost taxpayers thousands of dollars each week.
Marion County’s situation is not unique. In a guest opinion in Friday’s Statesman Journal, Bob Nikkel of the Oregon Department of Human Services described the need for better funding of community-based mental programs.
By financing more programs, the state could help Marion — and other counties — break the cycle that lands so many mentally ill in jail or prison.
Hoy says the cycle starts when a mentally ill person has a crisis and does something that alarms people — trespassing, taking off his clothes, stealing something. People call the police.
Police have no information on the person’s history and no meaningful alternatives. So they arrest the person and take him to jail. Once the person is in jail, his Oregon Health Plan coverage stops. He’s housed with criminals. The jail isn’t equipped to treat his mental illness. If he agrees to take medication, fine; if not, he won’t be forced to do so. Either way, it’s likely someone else — possibly a criminal — will have to be released to make room for him.
Eventually the person gets released, often after serving more time than a person without mental illness arrested for the same offense. Without the Oregon Health Plan, he has no medication. Getting a community mental health appointment can take weeks.
While he waits for that appointment and the needed medications, the person has another crisis — the police are called … And on it goes.
That cycle doesn’t serve taxpayers, police or people with mental illness. It’s time to stop it by providing more mental health care in the community.
liz | 4:22 PM | Uncategorized
The Bipolar Child
I don’t think I said it lately, so I’ll say it again: I don’t believe small children can be properly diagnosed with mental illness and then treated appropriately. It’s not possible. It’s hard enough to get a diagnosis and medication protocol correct in adults, who are no longer growing and developing and whose behavior is much more stable and comprehensible. In kids? Come on. That’s why I’m feelin’ Larry Diller, author of the below article:
liz | 1:21 PM | Uncategorized
Let’s crash the Google video party
The new Michael Moore film about the healthcare industry in the U.S. is online in its entirety here. Thanks to Brian M. for letting me know.
UPDATE: It’s vanished!
liz | 11:05 AM | Uncategorized
Three things I dislike are apparently good for me
Yoga, wine and girl-time important to mental health
liz | 10:56 AM | Uncategorized
Celebrity Revelation: Thai tutor has bipolar disorder
It’s interesting to me that someone in Thailand can be famous for being a tutor, but perhaps the word has different connotations there. Here when I think of tutor, I’m picturing the sleepy-voiced nerdy test prep guys who wanted to shoot themselves in the face every time they had to go over the material again.
Tutor Prakitpao says he had bipolar disorder
liz | 5:18 PM | Uncategorized
Forgot to tell you guys
My shrink recently told me that he didn’t think I should live alone. I know he’s right, but I was still disappointed somehow. You can know something about yourself, but it always becomes more real when someone else points it out.
Anyhoo, I think it’s weird how there’s an ad for a bariatric surgeon on the same page as this article. Or not weird, actually. Just kind of depressing.
Depression May Determine Success Of Obesity Surgery
liz | 4:55 PM | Uncategorized
A “fast redo”
EVS sent an article today about the Puget Sound Veterans Administration quickly cleaning up two mental health wards that not only failed inspection, but noted that the patients were in danger. I can only imagine how difficult it is for residents of these facilities. From the Seattle Times:
Within 24 hours of the inspection, said Dr. Robert Barnes, associate director of mental-health services for the Seattle division, the hospital had started tearing out grab bars, removing side rails on beds and unbolting pictures from the walls.
Barnes said these actions upset many patients, who rely on such homey touches as bulletin boards with notes and pictures above their beds.
The issue is one of suicide prevention. Inspectors who saw similar conditions three years ago didn’t cite the hospital similarly. But I imagine that increasing reports of veteran suicides have made changes in the hospital environment more urgent.
Of course, the real solution would to stop sending people to fight in pointless wars. But whatev.
VA mental wards getting fast redo after flunking inspection
liz | 12:30 PM | Uncategorized
