Reply #87: Not really.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

It may look fucked up now, as you appropriately feel great concern for this young man, but a lot of things have to happen to trip the circuit breakers that lead him to care, in a situation like this.

A lot of laws have been put into place, good and appropriate laws, to stop people from being punitively put into institutions for trivial reasons. At one time, parents could institutionalize rebellious children. What they often got back were ruined, shattered husks. Now, assessment teams are in place and they are very serious about their tasks. Also, because of the woeful state of funding in the US, for mental health issues, creating linkages to appropriate services, such as hospitalization where appropriate, doctors, psychologists, medications and intensive outpatient case management, has become orders-of-magnitude harder. There is just not enough money and not enough slots at providers to go around. I know that our best organization for case management, service linkages and advocacy in this area, Easter Seals(They truly do God's Work, and they are saints) is generally completely filled up. More slots means more staff. More staff means more money. More money is the one thing that is nearly impossible to get.

Also, some states are very lax when it comes to people who are displaying suicidal thoughts, plans and actions. I know of one woman, in NC, who attempted suicide by hanging in her garage. She was found by her ex-husband, who held her up while her teenaged son cut the rope. She went into the hospital but signed herself out in 3 days. North Carolina, unlike NJ, does not have a law that mandates 30 days hospitalization after such an attempt, so the person can be put into course of care.

In the US, we have a terrible attitude about mental health: get sick from the nose down, you are almost imbued with a new sense of nobility, strength and courage, in the eyes of all. Get sick above the nose, and you are weak, somehow unclean and perhaps possessed by Satan. This is not hyperbole. I have seen it more times than I ever thought I could stomach. Mental Health consumers often have to deal with being imbued with a sense of shame for their condition from their families, friends and the community.

We are a terribly backward society when it comes to Mental Health.