When budgets start getting slashed in a recession, sometimes the poorest, neediest people are hit the hardest. In Massachusetts, this has meant the closing of mental health clinics that serve the poor:
When Governor Deval Patrick stood before cameras on Beacon Hill in October to announce …
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Excellent article on the needless cut backs in mental illness treatment. Thank you, and thanks for such an excellent resource in your website. I freqently refer my patients to your site for information.
Joe
It is simple to politicians whom to go after first: mental health patients do not vote as a group, so, politicians will not feel much heat from those most impacted by these cuts.
But, two points from the article:
1. the cuts will not save money but increase expenses as untreated mentally ill patients will go to ERs more and end up in the correctional facilities more often as well.
2. sorry to say the following this way, but, it is deserved in my opinion: the idiot social worker who questions the value of therapy has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever read at a mental health site. I hope this person quits her job and goes into the sanitation industry, ’cause her efforts are garbage to me!
Why did they call the 1930′s the Great Depression? We’ll find out in the early 2010′s!
Sad, pathetic, ignorant, and cruel. America, whatta country!
Good points.
So the stigma against people with mental illness — especially those with chronic conditions — is only reinforced because they don’t vote as much as a group, and politicians feel safe largely ignoring them when times get tough (you wouldn’t see them doing that to senior citizen programs).