New Pot Research

A new study shows that pot ups the chances of developping a psychotic illness by 40%. Thoughts? Here's a link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/26/AR2007072602014.html

Greensane

Thought this was interesting---article about building a mental health center that is as "green" as possible. Would love for people to comment about the connections they see between mental health and environmentalism.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/GPG0101/707290688/1207/GPGnews

Lindsay's Arrest

So....she was arrested for dui and cocaine possession again, only a few weeks after getting out of rehab--I just read that she'd denying that the drugs were hers--and I also read a quote from the NY Times-- "'I hope they put her in jail for as long as they can,' said Bernie Brillstein, whose company has represented John Belushi and Chris Farley. 'Maybe she'll realize how serious it is. I believe she's uninsurable. And when you're uninsurable in this town, you're done.'" Amazing!

YouTube Debate: Guns and People with Mental Illnesses

Last night on the CNN/YouTube Democratic Presidential debate, the discussion briefly touched on mental illness--in the context of if people with mental illnesses should be allowed to own guns. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said, "Nobody who has a criminal background or is mentally ill should be able to get a weapon. That is the key, and that includes gun sales. That includes gun sales at gun shows." (See http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.transcript.part2/ for a transcript of the discussion about guns).

This got me thinking. There are alarming statistics that show firearms in the home are a risk factor for suicide--but should having a diagnosis of a mental illness automatically disqualify you from the right to bear arms? Should people with certain diagnoses be held to a different standard than people with other diagnoses when attempting to purchase a gun?

I have been trying to come up with answers, but I can only think of more and more questions.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

A Life Worth Living

Wille and Ray on the streets of skid row.

Every Saturday morning for the past 18 years a man named Ray Castellani has pulled a truck or van onto the streets of skid row in downtown Los Angeles and fed some of the most forgotten people in our country. It all started one day after Ray, a retired actor, and recovering alcoholic heard a voice telling him to feed people. That day he made 111 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and got in his truck. Today Ray has a fully functioning non-profit organization called the Frontline Foundation and a kitchen staffed only by volunteers that makes 12 trays of hot food, hundreds of sandwiches and hot dogs that he brings down to the same street corner he started on. Ray estimates that he has fed close to 1 million people, but the feeding isn’t the important part. The humanity, the hugs, the conversations and the care seem to matter most.

I am very familiar with Ray and his foundation because my fabulous girlfriend, Heidi, has gone with Ray every Saturday she has been in LA for the past 6 years and I have gone whenever I can for the past 4. Heidi found Ray a long time ago and as Ray always says if he wasn’t 74 they would be quite the couple! Heidi and I have a lot of friends on skid row. Our friends are convicted felons, people with severe mental disorders and no treatment, ex and sometimes current drug addicts, victims of abuse, and some have extremely violent criminal records, which include killing people. A good majority of the people down there have known Ray for all 18 years of his service as he has visited them in jail or helped them in other difficult times.

What amazes me most when we get down there is how many people with absolutely nothing, sometimes not even a shirt on their back, continue to find the will to live. My closest friend on skid row is named Willie. Willie grew up in Texas. He came to Los Angeles to play football for USC. Much like a lot of other homeless people he had tryouts in the NFL. Two of my other homeless friends played for the Raiders. Somewhere along the way things went wrong for Willie. He got into the system and hasn’t got out. Willie has a tracheotomy that he had to get due to an accident when he was high on crack. When Willie now in his late 50’s goes to jail, which is only once in the past 3 years for a minor offense, he can only be transported in full shackles, because of his violent criminal record. Willie has been able to get off the street sometimes for the past 8 years. He has spent a lot of time in hotel rooms that he pays for with his disability and social security checks. Recently he had to move to Long Beach, because they raised the rents for hotel rooms in downtown LA from $600 a month to $1,800 a month, which is a topic for another blog. Heidi and I have dropped Willie off at his hotels and also in front of spots on the corner where a blue tarp is hung over cardboard boxes marking his home and now we drop him off at the train station to get back to the LBC.

Willie really doesn’t have much outside of his hotel room. He has people he sees occasionally. His family is in Texas and he hasn’t seen them in years. He has a tv with local stations for sports and a dvd player which he cherishes. He loves any violent movie and Shrek! (who knows?) Whenever I see Willie we chat about sports, my speaking, what I am doing and what he does. He has an awesome sense of humor and is usually in a chatty mood, so he jokes about my life constantly calling me a motivational speaker and asking me to motivate him. He does talk about his life and he’s come a long way. He got off of crack about 7 years ago without the luxury of rehab and hasn’t gone back to it. He does drink beer. He tells me that he spends most of his time sitting in his apartment. No one will hire him, because he has the tracheotomy and it’s too much of a risk. He wants to work and I do believe he would, but he is stuck with a life filled with poor decisions, some things out of his control and even poorer outcomes. In the 4 years I have known Willie he has never mentioned giving up. He has said it’s hard. Stressed how much he thinks his situation sucks. And at times I have worried if I’d ever see him again, but no matter what happens every Saturday morning when we pull around the corner there he is in the middle of the street smiling, holding one hand to his throat to say hello. As we get out of the car he hugs both of us, when he says goodbye he tells us he loves us sometimes he cries and when we moved to Berkeley two years ago he wrote Heidi the most tear jerking letter telling her how much she meant to him and how he spends most of his week just wanting to get to Saturday to see us. He wrote just seeing us one day a week keeps him going.

Whenever I see Willie, my other friends and the hundreds of homeless people on Skid Row I wonder to myself could I do this? If I had nothing, no chance at growing, no chance at getting out, no way of seeing my family, could I wake up everyday to a tarp or a hotel room and keep going? I honestly don’t think I could. Anytime I am in any city I look around and see people like Willie and I’m amazed by their resiliency and will to live and love.

Asking the right questions...

On July 23rd, the Democratic presidential candidates will field video questions posted by YouTube users. At least one person is asking the right kind of question...




Got a question of your own? You can post it here...

Staying Motivated

As an advocate, I’m always looking for ways to stay motivated and to motivate other people to contribute to social justice. A sense of social responsibility is something that, for me at least, requires cultivation. It’s so easy to look at a person with a mental illness and see a tragic situation that is beyond your control; so easy to look at the ever-increasing numbers on suicide, psychosis, depression and anxiety, and see the inevitable work of bad genes and bad luck at play. The truth is that environmental factors- like family contact and community involvement- play a huge role in the expression of mental illness. Most of us reading this blog already feel responsible for doing something to change or mitigate the factors in our society that particularly aggravate mental illnesses- the alienation, the stigma, the competition, the long hours, etc. The challenge is to spread that sense of responsibility to people who don’t suffer or have immediate family members who suffer from mental illness.

An article I read recently (available here) illustrated to me that many people may actually benefit from the types of norms that can be so harmful to people with mental illnesses because those are the same norms that motivate people to engage in a consumer-driven economy. I’m not arguing that an economically strong society is good-in-itself, or that norms emphasizing individual accomplishment, isolation, and competition are necessary to build a strong economy. What I am saying is that if you believe those things- and a lot of people do- then you should also recognize that people with mental illnesses are forced to make a sacrifice so that you can enjoy the benefits of a strong economy.

The article was reporting on a thirty-year World Health Organization study that came to the hard-to-believe conclusion that treatment for schizophrenia in developing countries is far better than that in developed, western countries. Individuals with schizophrenia in poorer countries were more likely to have jobs, spend fewer days in hospitals, and up to twice as likely to become symptom-free than patients in rich countries. The authors pointed to a number of favorable factors present in developing countries, but the gist is that individuals with schizophrenia in developing countries are able to work, engage in family life, and remain otherwise socially connected in a way that similarly situated individuals in the West cannot.

One of the researchers pointed out that the kind of community-based care available in poorer countries is not compatible with a society organized around autonomy and individual accomplishment. (My cracker-jack hypothesis is that the ideal treatment for any mental illness is not compatible with a society organized around autonomy and individual accomplishment.) However, the premise here is that the US and other western countries are rich because they cultivate those norms of autonomy, independence, and competition. This means that (perhaps unintentionally) developing countries are paying a large opportunity cost in order to have the kinds of communities that provide good treatment environments for schizophrenia. The way I’ve set it up, there is a trade-off between cultivating the types of values that are conducive to economic success and cultivating the types of values that are conducive to ideal treatment for individuals with schizophrenia.

My point is not that we should eschew American ideals and values for a more humane, less materialistic society, although that would be a noble point to make. Rather, it is that those people who are better off for living in a rich country should feel obligated to contribute resources to compensate the people who are worse off for living in a rich country. It’s all too easy to ignore someone else’s problem when you have no control over it. When you realize that you could do something to make it better if you wanted to, and that you benefit from the state of affairs that makes their problem worse in the first place, it should be a little harder for you to look the other way.

When Work Hits Home

Tomorrow, July 21^st, is what would have been my brother, Brian’s, 30^th birthday, and my grandfather Lou’s 85^th. A big day for them both. But instead, I’m sitting here thinking about how I’m going to commemorate the day without them – either one of them – because they are both gone too soon.

Those of us in mental health advocacy often throw ourselves fully – hearts, heads, and minds - into our work, to better the lives of others. Sometimes it’s to prevent what has happened to us from happening to others; sometimes it is to pass on the good fortune we have experienced, through good support systems, recovery tools and/or role models. Every day, we hear stories from the people we serve, and each one is more heartbreaking and more motivating than the next. Mostoften we put our own lives, and experiences, aside.

But then there are those times when life creeps up on us, and we cannot put aside the reality of why we do what we do. Maybe it’s the anniversary of a date when you became sober; maybe it’s the commemoration of a hospitalization. For me, it’s the birthday, and anniversary days, of those I lost to suicide. For me, the two people who I would most call my mentors, my brother and my grandfather, are also the two who more than anyone else are why I am part of this field. And strangely enough, they share the same birthday. Seven and a half years ago, at the age of 22, my brother Brian took his own life. Now, just a day before what would have been his 30th birthday, I am left just wondering what he would be doing and what amazing things he would have accomplished if he were around. Maybe he would be married and I would have nieces and nephews; maybe he would be a bachelor in the big city. In the least, I have no doubt he would be making an indelible mark on this world, and he would still be here as my other half.

The night Brian died, my grandfather Lou drove me back to my mom’s house to be with my family. That year and for the next three while I was in school, he and my grandmother came to every one of my college football games (where I was a cheerleader); and he and I shared adoration for our mutual alma mater. Lou was a very successful businessman before I even knew him, and he became my mentor as I embarked on the formation of what is now Active Minds, Inc. He was the kindest, most endearing man I ever knew. Always supportive, Lou pushed me when I needed to be pushed and helped me sit back, reflect and appreciate when the time was right. About nine months ago, I lost my mentor – my grandfather Lou – also to suicide.

Both men played a pivotal role in my life, and both men have contributed more than they ever could know to who I am today. And it is because of these two men, and the families who commemorate birthdays and the anniversaries of a loved one’s death every day, that I do what I do. For me as an advocate, it is times like this that really make work hit home.

Million dollar question

Blog by Liz

This morning I spoke at a public policy institute focused on school mental health. One of the questions that keeps running through my head is how can we keep our country attentive to crisis prevention and intervention long after some type of crisis has passed. This is the million dollar question. We watched a tsunami devastate the other side of the world and a month later, it was gone from the tv screen. I am sure all of the money nations pledged to help victims was never fully realized. And Katrina was on our own shore. We know how that process has gone. Or not gone. What does it take to get political will and, consequently Congress, to stick with something and actually affect real, sustainable change?? I guess that's just too much to ask- even as we watch school shootings and unprecedented violence take place. Where is the outrage????

Elizabeth Lind
Policy Associate
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
1101 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 1212
Washington, D.C. 20005
(202) 467-5730 ext. 113
Fax: (202) 223-0409
E-mail: elizabeth@bazelon.org

Technological Divide and Sicko

&

Yesterday was a big day for me breaching the technological divide. I had to break down and buy a Motorola Q, which for those peeps with little techno knowledge is a hand-held computer that handles your phone, e-mail, calendar, contacts, internet and other fun things. I know some of you are thinking why didn’t I get the iPhone and believe it or not I don’t listen to music. I think music is a fad that will fade. :-) Ok so now you’re gathering why I have had such a large technological divide. But to be honest I have been adamant about not getting a device that gives people access to me 100% of the time, because I don’t think it creates less work. I think it makes you work all the time. I also think it’s more important to have time away from technology and other distractions to be able to focus on yourself or I don’t know my relationship and this growing trend away from those things really bothers me. And yes I know you can turn the Q off and trust me I will, but there are millions of people who don’t, who spend their vacations answering everything from work, mainly because with fabulous new technology we can.

This leads me to my next point, which has to do with the movie Sicko. One of the most troubling things that I took from Sicko is that other countries have a higher quality of life not only in healthcare, but also in spending time with partners, family and friends. The resounding argument over here is that, “Yeah they have universal healthcare, but they pay higher taxes and THEY DON’T HAVE AS STRONG OF AN ECONOMY.” So let’s work our 60-70 hour weeks, pay high amounts for private healthcare, not see our friends and families and what’s our giant return…LOWER QUALITY OF LIFE!!! I don’t know about you, but I think while these new technological advancements may make some things easier they are taking away a larger and more important part of life.

Just Asking...

So I write for a magazine that is funded by pharmacuetical companies, and in an essay about the mental health movement, I said that one of the issues that mental health advocates are interested in is the corruption between the pharmaceutical industry and the medical establishment. My editor said I can't use the word "corruption" because it is libelous and I could be sued. So, there are a handful of lawyers on this committee, and I ask them: is it LIBELOUS to say that mental health advocates are interested in the corruption between the pharmacuetical industry and the medical establishment?

On Memoir

An editor at a major publishing house recently sent me a memoir about bipolar disorder. She wanted me to consider writing a blurb for it, and I said sure. So I read the memoir--and basically it's the story of a totally out of control woman who has bp--it goes through many of her dysfunctional relationships, and also her attempts at recovery, and it does almost everything I hate that writing about bp can do, in its narcissism, its glorification of illness, its use of illness to excuse flaws, its utter lack of insight for others, etc, etc, etc. This is a book that lets you gawk at a crazy person, but doesn't transcend that very limited, and arguably useless experience. Needless to day I declined the opportunity to blurb it. But this has been a creative preoccupation of mine for years, and now, as I am about to start teaching writing this summer, I am wanting to clarify: how do you make writing about mental illnes artful, relevant, useful? Does any body want to cite books they felt did or did not achieve that goal?

tolerance???

Posted by Lucy

Today I heard from a man with mental illness who is going to be evicted from his apartment due to complaints from an AA group that rents the lobby for meetings. They say he heckles them, “harasses” them by following them around after meetings and asking questions, etc. If the judge believes these guys my guy will be out on the street and will really suffer. The AA people go home and likely forget his words within a few minutes.

This got me thinking about tolerance – why is it that the members of an AA group specifically would target this guy? Why were the other residents tolerant of this guy’s ways of being but not this group? Is there something about pulling yourself up or out of a bad place that makes you more likely to throw a stone? ICK!

hurdles

I've been thinking alot in the last month about being a student and the student life. As most of you know, I've just finished law school and I am studying for the bar this summer. My days are spent trying to cram and retain information into my head. I am often alone, engaged in solitary activities, unless I find a friend to study with. And I think I have a new insight into the way a troubled student could just drop off the map. A student, especially a student who struggles socially, could disappear for weeks into a depressive funk entirely unnoticed. The goals that the system sets for him, to work, to work hard, to learn, to write papers, would all reinforce his internal monologue that he should remain isolated and working. And this activity would serve to reinforce the symptoms and underlying causes of his mental illness. And this has left me thinking--shouldn't we reform the structure of our educational system?

Awareness at the Sandwich Shop

So--I'm on the Cape--tis lovely. And I was going to get a sandwich at this place Box Lunch which is a bit of a chain on the Cape--they make this wonderful sandwich called the gilded lily made of crab meat salad and avocado--AMAZING. So I ordered my sandwich and was schmying around the shop waiting for it to be ready, and saw that near the bathrooms, the owners had set up clipping about a local kid, college age, perhaps related to them, who knows, who was killed by cops after he, in a psychotic state, shot into a police station and led them on a chase. He was having a severe mental breakdown, and it was written up in the papers. Then his family created a little monument to him, and after a month the cops took it down, and this caused a bit of a local controversy. Point is this: next to the newspaper clippings, there was a large picture of the young guy, a totally "normal" attractive kid, and there was a poem his sister wrote about his death, and there was information about mental illness, suicide, and what to do if you or someone you know needs help. And I just thought it was so great, and brave, for the Box Lunch to take this opportunity to do some mental health awareness in their community.

Limits On Psychology?

Posted by Lucy

We’ve all heard about doctors – including psychologists and psychiatrists – making dire predictions about ourselves, our clients, or our loved ones. Sometimes these predictions wind up in court and inform judges’ and juries’ decisions about the future – about whether or not someone is dangerous, or whether or not someone needs a guardian.

But listen to this - the other day I met a boy, just 12, who had been severely abused by his biological mother and father. He’s been in the state’s care for six years and has been institutionalized (in a big prison-like setting in rural Texas) for nearly all of that time – roughly half of his life. I retained a psychologist in order to tell the court overseeing his placement what services he needs. I specifically asked for a recommendation for a foster family.

The expert has come back with the recommendation that this child NOT be placed in foster care, because the damage done to him by his birth family, combined with the damage done by the state in warehousing him for six years, has resulted in her opinion in his “inability” to bond with an adult parent, now or in the future. According to her, he lacks emotional and cognitive capacity to be parented – to be in a family.

Of course I’ll argue (no doubt with a different doc) that this isn’t true, as a matter of fact. But her words just hit me so hard. Isn’t there any area of a person’s life that should be sacred and therefore untouched by this field? Suppose her opinion is “correct” – so what? My strong feeling is that psychology and psychiatry have no place in this context – whether a kid gets a mom and dad – and that’s making me wonder: in what other areas should these quacks be banned? (And even if they are not quacks, and are correct – can we still stop their participation?)

The thing that has always bothered me about psychiatry/psychology is the power that comes with the “M.D.” or “Ph.D.” I can’t think of a situation in which an individual is legally given more authority over the direction over a child’s life than this one – only this special licensed adult has been given the ability to predict if a child will take to a family. Not even birth parents have that right in our system.

Should these professionals have NO authority to make predictions about future behaviors AT ALL?