60 Minutes segment on mental illness and violence.
 

Untreated mental illness an imminent danger? - 60 Minutes - CBS News

This 60 Minutes segment made some good points and I hope people will watch it if they have not. It forgot, however, to get into the issue about the use by the government or governmental connected entities of the label of mental illness as a weapon to crush dissent or manipulate people into behavior which is societally acceptable. The military labeled victims of sexual abuse "mentally ill" because it seemed to be easier to go after the victims than hold the officers and others accountable for their misdeeds. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mil...as-4526251.php Gay and lesbians used to be labeled "mentally ill" because they were not straight. Black activists were labeled mentally ill because they would not accept the status quo.

It is usually small cliques like in the US military who get away with these misdeeds or it could be much wider if the society already has deep problems with human rights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politic...e_Soviet_Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pro..._Black_Disease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecu...chiatric_abuse http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/09/26/lawma...exual-assault/

60 Minutes presents their very biased views in order to make things look like they want them to. I don't really watch that program anymore and if I do, I take everything they say with a healthy dose of skepticism.

You got that right!

:agree:

Link to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
 

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.

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.