Tag Archives: mental

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

It’s official, the people of the United States are Crazy! 1 in 5 on mental health drugs!!!

Medco Health Solutions Inc., says the use of drugs, in the U.S., for psychiatric and behavioral disorders rose 22% from 2001 to 2010!

But that’s an overall percentage, the numbers get worse, and more revealing, when you look at specific drugs, conditions, gender and age groups.

1 out of 4 U.S. women are using mental health drugs, the majority are women older than 45.  But there is a alarming trend of increased use among men and and young adults.

More than 20% of U.S. adults used drugs for conditions like anxiety and depression, in 2010.  The study saw a big increase in the use of drugs to control ADHD, especially in adults!

There was a 150% increase in the use of ADHD drugs among people aged 20 to 44 between 2001 and 2010, and a doubling among women in the 45-to-65 group!  I wounder if this has anything to do with the fact that many ADHD drugs are related to ‘speed’?

ADHD drug use in the over 65 age group increased about 30% for men and women between 2001 and 2010!  Are ADHD meds being used to treat memory problems typically associated with old people?  Can you say incompetent doctors grasping at straws?

The Medco study was based on the number of prescriptions issued between 2001 and 2010.





Business/Economics, U.S.

United Police States of Corporate America: People with mental problems thrown in prison, unwritten crime of being mentally ill, big money maker for Corporate Prisons

“When I became a judge I had no idea that I was becoming a gatekeeper to the largest psychiatric facility in the state of Florida – the Miami-Dade Jail.”–Steve Leifman, Miami-Dade County judge

Not only does the United States have the most people in prison, in the whole world, but it also has the most people with mental problems in prison.

A National Public Radio report says that the University of South Florida looked at who was the most frequently jailed people in the Miami-Dade County prison system.  It turns out that people with mental problems are the most frequently jailed people: “Over a five-year period, these 97 individuals were arrested almost 2,200 times and spent 27,000 days in the Miami-Dade Jail. It cost the taxpayers $13 million.”-Steve Leifman, Miami-Dade County judge

Most states don’t use mental health facilities, no thanks to former President Ronald Reagan’s decision to cut funding in the 1980s, so most people who commit crimes because of their mental problems end up abused in prisons.

“It seems to me that we have criminalized being mentally ill.”-Greg Hamilton, Travis County Sheriff, Texas

Sheriff Hamilton says because there is little funding for hospitals to care for mental patients, the prison system becomes the default ‘treatment’ center.

The amount of time a person with mental problems stays in a Travis county jail is between 50 and 258 days.

According to a 2009 Corrections Today interview with Judge Leifman, 90% of U.S. hospital beds for mental health patients have been closed, and there’s been a 400% increase in the mentally ill offenders entering prison!

According to a May 2011 Daily Kos posting: “There are three times as many men and women with mental illness in U.S. prisons as in mental health hospitals.”

“The costs of keeping a mentally ill individual in a penitentiary are three to six time what it costs to treat them at an outpatient mental health center.”

“The U.S. prison system had become the largest mental health provider in the country – with nearly 50% of inmates reporting mental health problems.”

“According to the most recent survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 81% of mentally ill inmates currently in state prison, 76% of mentally ill inmates in federal prison, and 79% of mentally ill inmates in local jails have prior convictions.”

“Mentally ill prisoners are more likely than others to end up housed in especially harsh conditions, such as isolation, that can push them over the edge into acute psychosis.”

“…there are powerful economic drivers to keep locking more and more of them up. In fact incarceration and detention has turned into a multibillion dollar growth industry.”

“…the [privately run Corporate] prison industrial complex is primarily motivated by economics, such that a formidable amount of prison industry capital is devoted to creating prisoners…”

In other words the exploding growth of Corporate run prisons demands more prisoners, so that the Corporate run prisons can make the money to pay back investors.  Mentally ill people are easy targets.

 

 

 

U.S.

Humans are going Insane: CDC says 2.2 million U.S. citizens planned to kill themselves in 2010!

“Southeastern states generally have the highest prevalence of depression, serious psychological distress, and mean number of mentally unhealthy days.”-CDC, Mental Illness Surveillance Among Adults in the United States.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of their mental health study.  Ileana Arias, principal deputy director of the CDC, concludes that there are “…unacceptably high levels of mental illness in the United States.”

Here are some more interesting facts from the study:

About 11 million U.S. citizens experienced serious mental health illness in 2010!

About 84 million of the U.S. population reported having suicidal thoughts; 2.2 million made plans to kill themselves in 2010, and about one million actually attempted suicide last year!

“In 2004, an estimated 25% of adults in the United States reported having a mental illness in the previous year. The economic cost of mental illness in the United States is substantial, approximately $300 billion in 2002.”

“The prevalence of current depression varies substantially by state (from 4.3% in North Dakota to 13.7% in Mississippi and West Virginia), as does the prevalence of serious psychological distress (from 1.9% in Utah to 9.4% in Tennessee).”


 

 

International

Humans are going Insane: One in Four Australians have Mental Disorder, christians say it’s the wrath of god

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says one in four Australians, age 16 to 24 have mental problems.

Since 2000 there’s been a 66% increase in mental issues for teens age 12 to 14.  And a 90% increase for teen girls specifically!

The Australian Christian Lobby blames divorces.  I think the Australian Christian Lobby needs their head examined.

The Australian Response Ability web site does list family problems as a factor, but it’s only one of many “risks”.   Understand that a “risk” is not necessarily a cause:

Family “risk” factors include:

  • having a single parent;
  • having a teenage mother;
  • large family size;
  • marital discord or family violence;
  • poor supervision and parenting;
  • being abused or neglected;
  • criminal or financial problems in the family;
  • parental mental illness or substance abuse;
  • harsh or inconsistent discipline and lack of affection; or
  • death of an important family member.

“Risk” factors for school-aged children include:

  • bullying and rejection from peers;
  • lack of connection with the school;
  • poor behaviour management at school;
  • a peer group showing problem behaviours;
  • difficult transitions between grades and schools;
  • problems with schooling and academic failure.

“Risk” factors in the community setting include:

  • social and economic disadvantage;
  • discrimination and racism;
  • isolation;
  • neighbourhood violence and crime;
  • high population density, poor housing conditions;
  • lack of support services and lack of recreational facilities.

Here’s some more disturbing mental health facts from Response Ability, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing:

One in five Australians will experience mental problems at some point in their life.

Every year 20,000 more Australians suffer mental problems.

Almost one in 100 Australians will experience schizophrenia during their lifetime.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Mental Health Decrease = Violent Crime Increase

A recent story in the Idaho State Journal showed that a random shooting, that took place at the end of September, may be linked to the state of Idaho ending health care coverage for people with certain mental disorders.

On September 27th, a man was shot outside a Pocatello, Idaho, coffee shop. He nearly died after losing 40% of his blood.  The shooter was a man who had not been on his mental health meds because the state cut off the funding.  The article showed there are other instances of violent behavior since the cuts took place.  One man, in court after assaulting his own house and car, was “suggested” by the local judge to get control of his mental problem (findarticles.com).  Hello? Isn’t that part of a ‘mental’ health problem?  They can’t control it without outside help, and many of them are not in a position pay for it.

This year Idaho lawmakers claim they saved taxpayers $9 million by cutting the mental health budget.  They also said, earlier in the year, that only people with private insurance would be dropped from state assistance.  Yet, I’ve read several recent articles that say, in actuality people without any insurance have been cut.  To give you an example of how insensitive lawmakers are; according to an article in the Idaho Statesman, State Representative Ken Andrus, a Republican from Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, said he considers the Pocatello shooting, by a man dropped from state help, to be an isolated case (www.idahostatesman.com).

Several mental health care professionals, here in Eastern Idaho, are warning that this is just the beginning of bad things to come.  The family of the shooting victim are outraged.

This reminds me of the Federal cuts for mental health care, pushed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.  Instead of saving money, it cost more money in the long run, because of increased incarcerations, and lawsuits, due to resulting violent crime by people who were pushed onto the streets, and, went off their meds.  The difference between then and now is that then the government was trying to save money.  Now, there is no money.  The results will be the same.