Quote:
Originally Posted by BarryRX
It would be a nice thing if we could steer this discussion away from how 60 minutes presents a story to a real discussion on mental illness. As a pharmacist, I have had my heart broken too many times by seeing brave people struggle with severe depression as well as with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. The way they are often ostracized by others is terrible. The weapons we have to treat these illnesses are often inadequate and come with significant side effects. In the (I believe) 1970's, with the advent of new antipsychotic drugs, we thought it was safe to let people out of mental institutions that often resembled something from the dark ages. We made it more difficult for people to be institutionalized against their will. For many, these new treatments allowed them to resume normal lives, but for others it led to homelessness and in some cases an increased danger to society. These are the discussions we should be having......how to remove the stigma from mental illness; how best to treat people who may need to be institionalized; how to identify cases of mental illness earlier, etc.
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That's a great point. Would like to hear a lot more about this too. There was a young man at Palm Harbor Library where I volunteered for three years-- a client who came in with his mother every week or so-- whom I sometimes would see at the movies as well as while donating blood. We at the library were surprised to see in the
St Pete Times (@2003) that he had been killed accidentally when running down a street by cops who were trying to detain him. He was very overweight but probably only about 30 at that time. He had a heart attack. I do not remember the exact details. He probably needed a lot more help than he was getting but he was also the main support of his invalid mother. Not financial support but emotional and physical. He wheelchaired his mother to the movies as well as into the library.