Bush admin screws DC taxpayers

[Peaches]

Originally posted by PornoDoggy@Jan 11 2005, 04:11 PM
I've also worked with homeless people myself. Folks who are homeless for purely economic reasons generally don't stay that way for long.

The majority are mentally ill.

If you sober up the alkies and dry up the druggies, underneath most of them you will find ... the mentally ill.

The idea that medical care, housing, mental heath treatment is available for the asking is ... mistaken is a polite way to put it. Between the complexity of welfare reform and cost-cutting measures in most of the financially-strapped states, many people entitled to assistance can't get it, or can't get it in a timely manner.

I had a close friend of mine shot and killed by a guy who had appeared at a state hospital several days a week for more than a month, BEGGING to be re-admitted before the voices told him to hurt someone.

The mentally ill, in particular, have been slam-dunked by both sides of the political spectrum, by the way. Between do-gooders on the left who want to give a schizophenic the right to chose not to be treated (without taking into account the fact that they lack the capacity to exersize those rights), and cost-cutters on the right who've shrunk public mental health services to levels that cannot begin to meet the needs out there, they've been well and truly fucked.

Good post, but again, what's the solution?

At least in ATL, we were able to get mental health care for those that would accept it. Few accepted it. Those that did weren't "hardcore" - they were people who were recently on the streets and realized if they wanted out they needed help. If we could prove they were dangerous to others or themselves, we could get them 72 hours in a facility but after that, we could do nothing until they showed up again and the cycle could be repeated until they learned not to come for any help at all because they didn't want to go to the facility.

We had MANY who had family willing to pay for top of the line mental care but again, they refused it. Some were even still covered under their parent's or spouse's health insurance.

What's the solution?