What Are We Doing?

Okay, I’m back. After a series of technical problems, a visit to a high spot of the Midwest and to the Pacific Northwest I find myself back in good old New York City. I’m getting ready to go off to Madison Square Garden for the semi-finals of the National Invitational Basketball Tournament. Washington State University is playing against Wichita State University in one of the games. Interesting, they are both known as WSU. My son is an alumna of the Washington one and I think of myself as representing him even though I am a Husky through and through.

I’ve said enough about that already. A brief word about my visit to the Midwest is in order. It doesn’t matter much where I was because everything looked the same. Middle America is ugly, drab and colorless. It’s not New York, it’s not Miami. Instead it’s miles and miles of flat brown farmland that grows nothing in March. Periodically, along the freeways, there are towns that appear to be primarily a row of every fast food chain America ever created. No sidewalks because no-one walks. They drive to the fast food restaurants. The motel I occupied provided an un-obstructed view of the golden arches. Oh well, everyone to their own preferences.

Now to the mind-boggling event of the last week: Libya? What are we doing? What is our President thinking? Of course it is possible to build a rationale for anything we want to do but it is truly mind-boggling how this one was put together. We have a war in Iraq, we have a war in Afghanistan and now we want another one? I don’t care what anyone says, it’s not going to be easy to get out of these wars. Libya is now Obama’s war and he will have to stick with it one way or another until there is a positive outcome, whatever that might be, or suffer the political fallout. We have intervened in a foreign country and taken sides in a civil war. It will be a miracle if that turns out well. I hope I’m wrong.

The biggest mind-boggling part of this escapade to me is the backdrop at home. Meanwhile in the U.S. we have millions of Americans out of work, we have a country dangerously deep in debt that may have to shut down April 8^th, we have millions of families who have lost their homes or will lose their homes, many government workers are losing their jobs, essential services are being cut willy-nilly. And don’t forget my previous post regarding the enormous cuts in Mental Health Services that leave the mentally ill to find services in jails and hospitals. The question is, with our country and our people in such a state of disarray, how can we justify taking on a war? Maybe it’s easier to kill and destroy than to figure out solutions to difficult social and financial problems at home.

What about Japan? Mother Nature has massacred thousands there and it will take many years to re-build their country. In the long run, it might make more sense to help them re-build than to destroy Libya and then have to re-build that country. It’s all simply mind-boggling to me. But then what do I know? I’m just a life-long pacifist that believes there is always a better way than military intervention. We shall see what happens. What do you think? 

Stan the Man     

Mind-Boggling Developments in Mental Health

A year ago I left the publically funded mental health system. I had been playing one role or another in that system for many years. Whether it was as therapist, clinical supervisor, Director it was burnout time. Enough was enough. The system is driven by the medical model that often has little to do with an individual’s mental illness or recovery. The medical model brings with it the “tyranny of diagnosis.” Every client or patient must have a diagnosis. That diagnosis has come to further dictate the so called, “evidenced based treatment model” to be utilized in treating each diagnosis. The diagnosis is attached to the individual and may follow them for years. All of these requirements along with the expected accountability, means mountains of paperwork, much of which is duplicative. Funding to support the system has always been inadequate. Funding problems mean caseloads larger than any therapist could effectively treat. In addition, inadequate funding leads to salary levels that mean poorly trained staff delivering services that guarantee failure and frustration for both therapists and clients.

Now, as reported in today’s USA Today Newspaper, the National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that States have slashed $1.8 billion from mental health spending since 2009. Kentucky leads the way, having cut 47.5% in non-Medicaid mental health funding. Kentucky is followed in order by Alaska, South Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin. Some states have increased funding with Oregon, North Carolina and Florida moving in that direction.

We can only expect further cuts in essential services for people in need with the financial problems our Country and States have. This has been further emphasized by the surging Tea Party and Republican machine. According to the article, 1 out of every 17 Americans lives with a serious mental illness. They have lost such services as emergency hospital treatment, long-term hospitalization, community clinic services and crisis intervention services. The net result is these people will end up filling hospital emergency rooms and our jails and prisons. There will be no savings experienced but the cost will simply shift. We are likely to have more incidents like the shooting in Tucson recently.

While this and other critical services are being cut we continue to pour billions and billions of dollars into the military to continue the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Isn’t it mind-boggling that we don’t re-examine our priorities?

Stan The Man

    

Key Largo

Okay, I have to admit I am beginning to have a mind-boggling affair with South Florida. Seems that everywhere I turn I’m confronted with another beautiful, mind-boggling sight, feeling or experience. The latest was during a brief trip to spend two nights in Key Largo. I think, most of us know of this key from the famous song about this special place. I found it to be a truly remarkable location. Warm (86 degrees) and sunny on the last day of February and the first day of March, 2011. Key Largo is a mind-boggling contrast with New York City and Dayton, Ohio, where I will find myself in the next couple of days. Unless I’m mistaken there are no palm trees in the latter two locations. Do the weather and the palm trees affect a person’s emotional state? I can only speak for myself: absolutely! Don’t miss the photos of sunsets over Key Largo to the right.

Stan the Man