Guest Post: The U.S Revolving Door of Shame by Gerald Bouthner

The U.S. Revolving Door of Shame

As a mental health advocate and fellow mental illness sufferer, I get really perturbed by the inequality that has persisted in our health care system. One particular thing that sickens me is all the prison cells, park benches, cold concrete sidewalks, and alleys, that have become homes/bedrooms for so many mental illness sufferers. In the U.S. it seems like the mentally ill who have lost all family support are very easily ignored and forgotten. Maybe even viewed as a bothersome bunch, and are sent off to live on the streets. In turn, many of them end up regularly in our prison systems.

Homelessness is a big problem here in the U.S. as is the number of chronically mentally ill that inhabit our prisons. In 2007 The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimated that nearly 750,000 Americans experience homelessness on any given night in the U.S. Of the 750,000 homeless it is reported that 1/3 about 250,000 of them have a chronic mental illness.

Because of the horrible, ineffective, and dehumanizing treatment record of State Mental Health Hospitals, there was a continual move in the 1980's to shut down the majority of them. Most of our chronically mentally ill citizens were discharged supposedly into a better community health care center program. Upon release from the Mental Health State Hospitals they were suppose to receive rehabilitation and drug therapy from these new federally funded community mental health centers. However this transition did not come anywhere close to fulfilling its expectations. Many within 6 months of discharge were homeless and unmedicated.

Not much has changed since this travesty of improved treatment and rehabilitation of the mentally ill occurred. Today, three times the amount of people with severe cases of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder live in the streets than are being treated in our State Mental Health Hospitals.

Equally deplorable is the amount of mentally ill U.S. citizens whose homes become a small cell inside our jail systems. Sad to say, but I would imagine that for some it may be viewed the better of the two given options. Prison food is certainly nothing most would consider as a fine meal. However, in comparison to living on the streets and digging through trash cans as some have to do, it may be considered a step up by some.

In 2006 a study was conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics showing that 64 percent of local jail inmates, 56 percent of state prisoners and 45 percent of federal prisoners have symptoms of serious mental illnesses. As result of this horribly executed deinstitusionalization many of of our mentally ill have been left with prison systems as their means for treatment.

The mental health services in our prison systems being left to treat the mentally ill has proven equivalently as helpful as putting a band-aid on a broken bone. They were not prepared or set up for this, are understaffed, limited in programs, and have been unable to provide any meaningful treatment. Most of the homeless mentally ill upon release from prison are no better than they were when they arrived and return to the streets having no where else to go. They are trapped in a revolving door between homelessness and incarceration.

Where is the justice? Are the mentally ill just dispensable? This stands as a sad testament to our mental health care system. These chronically mentally ill people deserve better treatment. Appearances declare that they are not deemed equal or deserving of proper care. Many States have even been cutting their mental health care budgets amidst this crisis.

If such improper care was placed upon cancer patients a loud outcry would occur. It would be considered inhumane, and I agree. Although mental illness is not a terminal illness, the suffering it inflicts is severe. Such lack of necessary mental health treatment, and allowance of a revolving door between homelessness and jail is also inhumane. But where is the outcry? If more cried out for change more change could occur. Some people feel their one voice is not strong enough. The truth is that one outcry can snowball into many. But someone has to cry first.

In most cases the imprisonment of the homeless mentally ill is a result of them trying to survive a life on the streets. Petty survival crimes such as theft and loitering, and disturbance of the peace, are the most common crimes they are sent to jail for. Jail officials have been speaking out about this noticeable problem. Recently in the news their has been talk by Chicago Jail officials about setting up a program that screens non-violent suspects as they come into jail, determining who is mentally ill and then potentially providing low income housing and treatment before they ever spend a night in the slammer. Video and story

This is certainly a great move in the right direction. This is a program that if enacted nationwide will provide proper deserving care for people that have suffered far to long. By doing nothing we are continuing the forceful push of our homeless mentally ill through that same revolving door. The U.S. is in the process of making what I would deem meaningful needed changes in our mental health care system. Project Aware Pages 11-13 highlights those.

However this issue of homelessness and incarceration of the mentally ill has not been addressed in this plan. This particular lack of equal treatment also needs to be addressed as a nation as it has been ignored for far to long.

About Author: Gerald Bouthner is a Mental Health Advocate, Blogger, and Guest Writer on Various Mental Health Blogs. Find out more about Gerald at The Challenges of Mental Illness or contact him via social media: Twitter Google+ Facebook

Gerald Bouthner Bipolar Disorder Blogger and Activist http://mentalhealthlivingwithbipolar.blogspot.com

My blog: "Working at Home"

Aliens Cymraeg

 

 

 

 

 

Meddyliais i’m hun wrth deithio o Rhayader i Lanelwedd yn ddiweddar, yr unig ffordd i gael cynnydd sylweddol yny nifer o siaradwyr Cymraeg os tase rhyw UFO yn glanio gyda bataliwn o aliens bach, gyda Chymraeg perffaith glan gloyw. Dwi ddim yn meddwl fydd nhw yn cael llawer o groeso, dim ei fod nhw yn aliens ond oherwydd bod nhw yn siarad Cymraeg ac mae 81% o boblogaeth Cymru ddim yn medru’r iaith. Efallai fod ni fel ‘Cymry Cymraeg’ honedig, the Welshest of Welsh ddim yn sylweddoli pa mor anodd ydi o i ddysgu. Mae’r bobol fwyaf brwdfrydig dros yr iaith yw'r rheina sydd wedi dysgu fel ail iaith. Maen nhw yn gallu yn rhoi pobl iaith gyntaf to ‘shame’ fel petai. Mae Cynnydd ddim yn mynd i ddigwydd dros nos ond weithiau dwi yn meddwl dan ni yn mynd yn obsessed gyda’r mewnlifiad a rhoi bai ar Loegr a’i thrigolion. Dydym ni ddim yn berthnasol i bobol Lloegr ond mi rydan ni yn berthnasol i bobol un iaith Saesneg sydd yn byw o fewn muriau Clawdd Offa? Dydi gorfodi bobol i wneud rhywbeth byth yn mynd i weithio ond mae rhaid meddwl am friwsion mwy tantalising na’r Eisteddfod a S4C i ddenu dysgwyr. Fasa ail poblogeiddio rhywle fel Sir Maesyfed gyda Chymry Cymraeg ei iaith yn un syniad. Creu rhywfaith o gymuned gynaliadwy a symud mas o fanna ond nid i’r dinasoedd mawr ond ail greu cymunedau yn y wlad. Ydi pobol y pres yn mynd i wneud gwahaniaeth i’r Gymraeg neu ydi ewyllys da'r ‘werin datws’ y ‘folk potatoes’ at ei iaith a’i etifeddiaeth fydd y gwahaniaeth rhwng cynyddu neu gynilo?

 



Avenues @ Alleyways

My part of the 'Diff' has become a Gated Community. The Avenues and Alleyways of Grangetown are being gated and locked. Anti-Climb Paint is also being sprayed on the bars in case you fancy a jump for freedom down the alleyways of your memory. We are living in an age of fear and distrust where community has all but disappeared apart from in the hearts of a certain generation. We head for the supermarkets in our little exhaust producing bubbles. We worship car parking spaces as if they were Gods. Walk? Wassat then? There have been a spate of burglaries in the South side of Grangetown. The Marl. 16 houses have been targetted, mid afternoon. Persons unknown have been getting over from the avenues and alleyways behind the houses allegedly and in this age of austerity, the poor have turned on the poor. Whilst those in the Gated Communities of the more affluent parts of Cardiff have their reasons for living in isolation, their wealth being among them, we in the less salubrious parts are creating visual images that we are not to trust eachother.

"They are coming in over the back, Jack, get the shotgun"

    

Do we trust eachother? Do we really? Are you in fight or flight mode when you go into town? Maybe it's just me but I'm looking over my shoulder a lot more often these days.

Some Classic Examples of Grangetown Alleyway Graffiti

Half Price Love

It was Valentine's Night in Somerfield, Aberystwyth.

You can tell how long ago it was because the shop is now a Home Bargains having been a Co-Op & Budgen in the interim.

I had popped down to get some Bics (Product Placement) that nick!

It was 7.30pm on February 14th 2009 and there to the right was a stand with cards and balloons and hearts and things.

And there above in Pink were two signs: Half Price & Love

Half Price Love

Then what price full love?

Which got me to thinking and to writing this ode to a commercial money grabber called Valentine who just like his cousin Nicholas excludes those who have no love!

Is no love better than half price love?

I don't know!

Best check your change to find out.





A Tribute to the Civil Rights Movement - red button theatre and film workers' co-operative

A Tribute to the Civil Rights Movement - red button theatre and film workers' co-operative

Cymry am Ddiwrnod/Welshmen for a Day

Wassail

Never done it before, but today, this afternoon as the men in red were getting whopped by the men in green(Le Religion de Rugby) I was wassailing round an allotment somewhere in deepest, darkest, Cardiff. If you don't know what wassailing is then check this link out daddyo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassail

Good ol wikipedia! Well a gang of us crypto-pagans, druids and new agers (Not your common and garden allotment holders) went around an allotment blessing the fruit trees with plenty of noise to ward off evil spirits. I had a whistle and a rattle and considering I had never wassailed before, I got well into it. We then dipped toast into mulled wine and placed the small triangular pieces on to the branches of an apple tree. A Gentleman poet, the Green Man, then serenaded the trees in verse. To be frank, it just felt good to be out in the open air on a sharp, cold but sunny day.  The reason I was there, I have started volunteering on an allotment project and am thoroughly enjoying it.