Comments on: Mental health courts http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/trouble/2007/08/01/mental-health-courts/ A blog about mental health Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:55:48 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Joe http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/trouble/2007/08/01/mental-health-courts/comment-page-1/#comment-2290 Joe Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:47:14 +0000 http://trouble.pwblogs.com/2007/08/01/mental-health-courts/#comment-2290 There have been decades of talk about a "continuum of care." To date, the continuum appears to have found its reality in persons transitioning through an under-resourced public mental health system or falling by its wayside to an overpopulated prison system. A reasonable society would do better. A compassionate society would not tolerate it. For the moment words largely rule - continuum of care, evidence based practices, recovery, wellness, the team approach, psychosocial rehabilitation, mental health courts, jail diversion programs, empowerment, ready access, respect, hope, person-centered services, peer support, community integration, meaningful lives, holistic care - but the deeds necessary to realize them are too rarely experienced. "We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them." Abigail Adams There have been decades of talk about a “continuum of care.” To date, the continuum appears to have found its reality in persons transitioning through an under-resourced public mental health system or falling by its wayside to an overpopulated prison system. A reasonable society would do better. A compassionate society would not tolerate it.

For the moment words largely rule – continuum of care, evidence based practices, recovery, wellness, the team approach, psychosocial rehabilitation, mental health courts, jail diversion programs, empowerment, ready access, respect, hope, person-centered services, peer support, community integration, meaningful lives, holistic care – but the deeds necessary to realize them are too rarely experienced.

“We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.” Abigail Adams

]]> By: Sally http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/trouble/2007/08/01/mental-health-courts/comment-page-1/#comment-2289 Sally Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:31:58 +0000 http://trouble.pwblogs.com/2007/08/01/mental-health-courts/#comment-2289 If drugs were decriminalized, we wouldn't need to build more prisons and could spend our money our centers for voluntary treatment, the only kind that works. If the barriers to employment and housing for the mentally ill were reduced (okay I don't know how), people with this label wouldn't end up in the criminal justice system. If public defenders, instead prison builders were given tax dollars fewer poor people, innocent of the crimes of which they are accused, would be forced to plead NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity) and fake symptoms to get out of prison time they didn't deserve in the first place. However, placing people convicted of crimes in mental institutions with no sentences and worse conditions that prisons is not a solution. (Sorry I'm on fire on this one - glad you're back) If drugs were decriminalized, we wouldn’t need to build more prisons and could spend our money our centers for voluntary treatment, the only kind that works. If the barriers to employment and housing for the mentally ill were reduced (okay I don’t know how), people with this label wouldn’t end up in the criminal justice system. If public defenders, instead prison builders were given tax dollars fewer poor people, innocent of the crimes of which they are accused, would be forced to plead NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity) and fake symptoms to get out of prison time they didn’t deserve in the first place. However, placing people convicted of crimes in mental institutions with no sentences and worse conditions that prisons is not a solution. (Sorry I’m on fire on this one – glad you’re back)

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