Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

How The Federal Government Destroyed The Mental Illness Treatment System

#1
C C Offline
http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc...286&cn=390

EXCERPT: In American Psychosis: How The Federal Government Destroyed The Mental Illness Treatment System E. Fuller Torrey argues that the transfer of responsibility for individuals with serious mental illnesses from state to federal government destroyed the mental illness treatment system, through deinstitutionalization, and led to a disastrous change in how mentally ill individuals are treated today. Fuller Torrey argues that the change began in 1962 with plans for President Kennedy's Interagency Task Force on Mental Health and federally funded community mental health centers (CMHCs).

Fuller Torrey opens with a historical overview of how the mental health system worked at the time before the shift, focusing on the Kennedy family and the mental illness of Rosemary Kennedy before moving on to the politics of deinstitutionalization of state hospitals and the "death of asylums", while arguing that none of the experts called in to work on this shift had any experience with mental hospitals.

Fuller Torrey state that yes, the previous system with state responsibility was flawed but at least there was a system in place. The new shift in responsibility actually led to a lack of leadership, the closing of many hospitals and a severe lack of hospital beds and the move of individuals with severe mental illness from hospitals to prisons, jails, boarding homes and nursing homes, to name a few consequences.

The CMHCs put strong emphasis on the prevention of mental illness, without any studies demonstrating that the type of prevention they were advocating actually worked and without definite knowledge of how to prevent mental illness or what was causing mental illness. Fuller Torrey writes that: "Unfortunately, the mental health centers legislation passed by Congress was fatally flawed. It encouraged the closing of state mental hospitals without any realistic plan regarding what would happen to the discharged patients, especially those who refused to take medication they needed to remain well. It included no plan for the future funding of the mental health centers. It focused resources on prevention when nobody understood enough about mental illnesses to know how to prevent them" (p. 58).

The author, in the coming chapters, discusses the impact of deinstitutionalization on individuals with mental illnesses, the prison system and the public, providing plenty of examples on how dangerous and flawed the current system is. In the last chapters, Fuller Torrey mentions "good news", giving examples of some of the few upsides and successes of the mental health system. Thereafter the author provides a list of solutions and lessons to be learned....


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Ketamine therapy effective treatment for depression (study) Magical Realist 2 111 Sep 6, 2023 07:30 PM
Last Post: Magical Realist
  Article Owning a pet does not reduce symptoms of severe mental illness, study shows C C 4 168 Jul 20, 2023 12:01 AM
Last Post: confused2
  Article Magnetic stimulation depression treatment reverses “backwards” brain signals C C 0 57 May 22, 2023 01:41 PM
Last Post: C C
  The new meth and mental illness among the homeless Magical Realist 1 81 Feb 17, 2023 01:09 AM
Last Post: C C
  Genetic study confirms sarin nerve gas as cause of Gulf War illness C C 2 109 May 17, 2022 07:24 AM
Last Post: Kornee
  Why is this cancer treatment giving people night vision? (superhuman fitness) C C 2 110 Dec 19, 2021 10:54 PM
Last Post: Secular Sanity
  Havana syndrome that afflicts US government personnel rises to 130+ cases round world C C 0 95 May 15, 2021 07:27 PM
Last Post: C C
  Microwave weapons may be behind Havana Syndrome: the mystery illness of US officials C C 1 134 Dec 9, 2020 12:55 AM
Last Post: C C
  Do antidepressants create more mental illness than they cure? (interview) C C 1 169 Jun 15, 2020 05:39 PM
Last Post: Syne
  1st reported event & treatment of spaceflight medical risk 200+ miles above earth C C 0 133 Jan 2, 2020 11:17 PM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)