Watch “THE BUTLER MD 8/16/2013” on YouTube
August 17, 2013
HELPING THE MENTALLY ILL…
July 23, 2013
Sometimes it seems the only way to get help for a loved one you suspect of having mental health issues is unfortunately via the criminal judicial system. In other words, until the person is arrested for some crime, it may be difficult to get a diagnosis or get the person to willingly submit to treatment, even with a diagnosis. Most of us are against forcing an individual to take medicine but what do you do when a person’s brain is the problem and wants to maintain the status quo and, hence, no medicine is welcomed even if it might help the person to heal. That’s an ongoing dilemma.
Former Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes is finally going to get some psychiatric help after months of acting out in ways that raised question about whether she is in her “right mind.”
On Monday, July 22, 2013 around 9 pm she was detained for a mental health evaluation after setting a fire in a stranger’s driveway in her California community. She’s now being held for 72 hours on what’s called a 5150 psychiatric hold. It’s involuntary and will legally allow a mental evaluation. According to the Channel 2 CBS station in Los Angeles:
Amanda Bynes Placed On 5150 Hold After Disturbance At Thousand Oaks Home
THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA.com) — Actress Amanda Bynes was involuntarily hospitalized late Monday for a mental evaluation after authorities received a disturbance call at a Ventura County home.
Local fire and sheriff’s departments responded to a residence in the 200 block of Avenida De Los Arboles around 8:45 p.m., authorities said.
When authorities arrived, they found the 27-year-old, who is a native of the area, outside the house.
“Deputies investigated the incident and determined that she met the criteria of 5150 W&I (California Welfare & Institutions Code),” Cpt. Don Aguilar said. “She was detained and taken for a mental health evaluation.”
“There’s been no charges at this time or crime in reference to this incident,” Cpt. Aguilar told KNX 1070.
Monday’s episode was not Bynes’ first run-in with the law.
On May 23, she was arrested for allegedly throwing a bong out of her New York City apartment window. She has been charged with reckless endangerment and attempted tampering with physical evidence.
Her next court appearance was scheduled for Sept. 26.
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Also… a few months earlier (May 2013), members of the media, including TMZ, reported that Bynes wasn’t crazy enough to be evaluated for “craziness.” http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/25/amanda-bynes-not-certifiable-5150-mental-illness-conservatorship/
AMANDA BYNES NOT CERTIFIABLE And It’s a BIG Problem
EXCLUSIVE
Amanda Bynes is not 5150 material, meaning she can’t be picked up against her will and held for mental evaluation, at least not yet … this according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.Our sources tell us Amanda has not been diagnosed with any mental illness. Sources say her parents are worried there are signs she might be bipolar or schizophrenic, but Amanda has been unwilling to undergo psychiatric testing.
We’re told her parents would like to create an involuntary conservatorship, similar to Britney Spears, but Amanda’s conduct is not so over the line that a judge would take away her freedom.
Ditto for a 5150 psychiatric hold, which would allow authorities to put Amanda in a mental facility against her will for 72 hours for mental evaluation. We’re told authorities just don’t have the goods. In fact, Amanda was taken to a hospital after her arrest Thursday night and the shrinks didn’t think an involuntary hold was warranted.
There’s one other option to get a diagnosis. If Amanda is so out of it she can’t understand the nature of the criminal cases that have been filed against her … a judge can halt the proceedings and order a psychiatric evaluation. Amanda has been involved in 3 criminal cases in California recently, and there was NO effort to go this route. That’s because she has always been lucid in court. (TMZ 5/25/2013)
So even though Amanda’s behavior was increasingly “strange” both on and off her twitter account – from wearing blue wigs to court to being threatened with eviction for smoking “weed” in a non-smoking exclusive NY apartment building… there’s been apparently a feeling that there’s nothing her parents or others could do about it.
Well, there is... but no one has used TAC-supported AOT or the NAMI-supported ACT in Bynes case. The Treatment Advocacy Center’s ASSISTED OUTPATIENT TREATMENT (AOT) plan permits court-ordered involuntary treatment of a mental illness while the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) advocates for ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT (ACT) which requires the support of “the consumer.”
Either way, and in spite of controversy involving each, the goal is similar: keep people with mental illness from becoming criminals in order to receive treatment. Advocates on both sides of the issues are encouraged to actively engaged in mental health care reform debates.
Amanda Bynes‘ actions are just the latest wake-up call that more, not less, is needed for the caregivers and loved ones of relatives struggling with mental health issues.
Working4the Mentally Ill
January 1, 2013
A KEY QUESTION for 2013:
Is it okay NOT TO TREAT mentally challenged individuals?
In 2013… every time you read about a person being suspected of having a mental illness AFTER being arrested for a violent crime, it’s important to remember this fact: on average a person with a mental illness is NOT VIOLENT. Often when someone with mental health issues commits a serious crime, that person is often NOT receiving or taking medication. Violent people with mental health challenges are typically those who are NOT in treatment.
BUT… now hear this: TREATMENT WORKS; it’s a good preventive intervention. So the next logical question is – why isn’t our society doing more to prevent violence, in the first place; that is to say… why isn’t more being done to insist on medical treatment for individuals with severe mental illness? Why do nearly half of the people diagnosed with a mental illness not get the medicine and treatment they need? Where are the preventive services? Why are too many mental health services and other related resources the first to suffer when budgets are cut. Two answers: STIGMA & IGNORANCE!
The stigma of mental illness limits national and local discussions. But stigma is driven by ignorance. And, of course, that explains the lack of OUTRAGE when legislators and policy makers continue to make mental health issues a low priority. How strange that the typical response to violent crimes in Newtown, CO and Colorado is not more action, but less, when it comes to guns. Those opposing MORE GUN CONTROL are likely to also be those not interested in reforming our nation’s mental health system! How ironic… even mentally ill shooters must have their Second Amendment rights protected.
And a Baltimore Sun editorial (11/27/2011) shows just how much education remains to be done to destigmatize mental illness.
First, an article on inmate deaths at a state mental hospital pointed out that Baltimore Sun editors endorsed a new CEO there. They called him “the right man to lead the institution on the long road to emotional recovery.” But I was stunned when the editors pointed out that “most of the extremely mentally ill patients at Clifton T. Perkins state mental hospital” had “never received treatment for their illnesses before they came to Perkins.” Excuse me? Did I miss something here? Is that true? Are these Baltimore Sun editors not really bothered by the fact that those declared “not criminally responsible” by a court never received TREATMENT FOR A MENTAL ILLNESS before either being arrested or ending up in a mental hospital? Wow!!! Are we really being well-protected in our society?
Second, the need for education about mental illness is apparently clear when Sun editorial writers… point out that – most of the 239 Perkins’ patients who are diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorders, and severe mood disturbances, as major depression and bipolar disorders, DID NOT receive psychiatric treatment before they arrived there.
Now that is one scary thought? Is it just me or do you find it amazing that the media and policy makers are not alarmed? Do too many of us just accept that some mentally ill people are going to have to commita crime in order to get treatment for their broken brains?
As a certified teacher for Maryland’s National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), I have taught hundreds of caregivers for the mentally ill at area hospitals. The first fact they learn is that treatment works. Caregivers of the mentally ill come to class already knowing that stigma hurts!
NAMI’s free 12-week education program – Family2Family (F2F) – is taught throughout Maryland and the country. It is pivotal for helping parents, spouses, and other caregivers understand brain disorders (mental illness), prescribed medicines, and psychiatric rehabilitation services.
Research shows that it is particularly difficult to get coordinated services around the country and in Maryland – a state that withholds treatment for mentally ill individuals, unless they are a danger to “self or others.” That limited law is often missing from stories about the mentally ill. In other words, by not focusing on how so many untreated mentally ill adults end up at the Clifford T. Perkins Mental Hospital, the Baltimore Sun also reinforces the myth that the mentally ill are dangerous.
But that is not the case. What is dangerous is for a society tolerate so many untreated mentally ill citizens.
So… without a powerful and sustained outcry from the mentally ill and/or their caregivers… little will change. Mental health budgets will get cut; mental health services will get pushed even farther to the back of the agenda. Already suffering from fatigue from just trying to survive without housing, jobs, and treatment, individuals with mental health issues can’t be expected to march on the State House or the White House.
Mental health caregviers who have graduated from NAMI’s Family2Family courses continue to be appalled by a mental health system held together with plastic tape or bubble gum. It is also sad to discover that our beautiful state is one of the seven worse places ( Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Tennessee) for getting better coordinated mental health care. In the name of individual rights, these seven states use a narrowly defined law (danger to self or others) to permit mentally ill persons to refuse treatment, in the name of individual rights. Yet, the law flies in the face of science. Research clearly demonstrates that the brain of a mentally ill person can’t be trusted to make good judgments early on in the disease. Denying a mental illness is a part of the disease itself. This neurologically based brain disease is called – anosognosia.
According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, anosognosia – is believed to be the single largest reason why individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not take their medications. It is caused by damage to specific parts of the brain, especially the right hemisphere, and affects approximately 50 percent of individuals with schizophrenia and 40 percent of individuals with bipolar disorder. When taking medications, awareness of their brain illness tends to improves in many patients.
In addition, Oliver Sacks who wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, notes that it is difficult, for even the most sensitive observer… to picture the inner state of the mentally ill because the experience itself “is almost unimaginably remote from anything” most of us know.
The fact that Maryland is one of only seven states lacking court-ordered assisted or outpatient treatment means that the only way our mentally ill loved ones can get treatment against their wishes… is to commit a crime! Remember the guy who travelled across country to fire shots at the White House late last year? Was that a mental health call for help?
It is thus hard to ignor that F2F caregivers lack important and much needed safety nets for helping relatives with severe mental illnesses. We can’t force them to take medicine or undergo even outpatient treatment, even when these things would make them less likely to be violent. Except for seven states, a history of not taking medicine counts because the law has been expanded beyond it’s narrow interpretation of danger “to self or others.”
Until Maryland reforms the mental health law, family members of the mentally ill are left to struggle with their untreated relatives being frequently released from Emergency Rooms and psychiatric facilities because no one has been hurt or killed, yet!
While the singular and narrowly defined law of “danger to self or others” is cost effective for the state, in the long run it is costly for our society. Other states get that and have expanded the law to include other special conditions. The result is that care is coordinated and mentally ill persons receive court ordered care BEFORE crimes are committed.
Those who argue that individuals should not be deprived of their rights, under any circumstances, have probably not been held hostage by a loved one with a mental illness. While it makes sense, ideally, to have mentally ill patients participate in their treatment, timing is important. Is it really a good time to give an individual in the middle of a rage like episode the right to make decisions about treatment?
Without a court order to initiate treatment, many of us end up with mentally ill relatives walking around the house saying there is nothing wrong with them. We live in dread and wait for the other shoe to drop; we live in uncertainty and fear the arrival of news that our loved one has been found on the streets or homeless or arrested and even, killed.
So while treatmentfor the mentally ill remains a philosophical and political issue, what can’t wait is that the one in five suffering from a mental illness need help NOW!
Because there is more to the story than the Cliford T. Perkins state mental hospital getting new leadership, I write to make sure that we do not forget that the patients at Perkins are there because they didn’t or couldn’t get mental health treatment BEFORE committing a crime.
So a final question for 2012 – Is it really humane or in the COMMON GOOD for so many of our citizens with compromised minds to be denied the very interventions that would prevent them from being homeless, jobless, violent, in detention centers, prisons or state mental hospitals, such as a Perkins? If you could hear the stories from families members that I hear, you would clearly know that the answer is a resounding “NO!”
Family2Family members have a renewed chance in 2012 to let legislators know ALL IN NOT WELL… we need coordinated mental illness care in Maryland AND that is not going to happen without reform and a change in the law to move beyond a standard of “danger to self and others.”
“The National Institute of Mental Illness (NIMH) in 2010 estimated that 7.7 million Americans suffer from schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder – approximately 3.3% of the US population when combined. Of these, approximately 40% of the individuals with schizophrenia and 51% of those with bipolar are untreated in any given year.” (Source: Treatment Advocacy Center)
Your comments are welcomed!
Breaking News: We’re a FAT & Increasingly Mentally Ill Country
October 11, 2011
Depression, mental illness, mood changes… Read the rest of this entry »
The Stigma of Mental Illness…
July 28, 2011
Why is it we hear so much about drinking and drugs when there’s mention of the tragic death of Amy Winehouse and so little about her long-time battle with severe depression? She certainly admitted her suffering with depression in her Grammy award-winning song REHAB. Yet, the public and the media continue to treat drinking and drugs as her DUAL DIAGNOSIS, rather than recognizing her dual problems might have been mental illness and substance abuse.
The end result is that we’re missing a golden opportunity to de-stigmatize mental illness. You see, the public is getting very little discourse about which came first, Amy’s addiction or her major depression. Ignoring the symptoms of Bipolar disorders or the highs and lows of manic depression is not unusual for those struggling with the problem. What’s often not revealed is that those around such people can be either in denial or just not educated enough to recognize the sometimes life-threatening seriousness of mental disorders.
Either way, the silence is sending mixed messages, especially for young people who often look the other way for celebrities. Amy Winehouse, for example, told a British TV interviewer with The Album Chart Show that she was manic depressive and not alcoholic. Then, of course, perhpas, she quickly admitted that that comment made her sound like “an alcoholic in denial”
Because of her death on July 23, 2011, Amy Winehouse will be “forever young.” What is equally tragic, however, is that the ongoing silence ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS covers up a well-researched finding: treatment for mental illness works and works even better… the earlier it is started.
The conspicuous media absence of Amy’s self-admissions about her own mental disorders – serious depression (manic depression or bipolar episodes), anxiety, post traumatic stress, cutting and other self-destructive behavior) – perpetuates an extremely serious health issue in society at large. In fact, it’s readily apparent that our policymakers and elected officials don’t seem to get it, yet: We really are one MENTALLY sick world!
Instead of cutting mental health services, reducing beds in psychiatric facilities, under-staffing mental health personnel in prisons, jails, and detention centers, and turning over once hospitalized mental patients to communities… politicians need to hear more from the paid and unpaid caregivers of the mentally ill. More advocates are needed for the voiceless who are struggling with addictions AND mental illness. At a time when our jails have become pseudo mental institutions, we need to stop celebrating and tolerating celebrities who obviously need treatment. It’s time to stop glorifying celebrities who set poor examples with their behavior. It’s time to speak out about mental illness, share our stories, and take our demands to the State House and other elected officials.
Ironically, three years earlier on the same day as her death this month – July 23 – we saw a far different Amy. Her father’s presence at the unveiling of her waxwork at Madame Tussauds in London is a testament to his devotion. Let’s hope that when Mitch Winehouse starts up The Amy Winehouse Foundation, as he promised at her funeral, that he will also recognize the mental health component in addiction rehabilitation. His voice and determination to honor his exceptionally talented daughter via her foundation, would thus become a welcomed effort to address the STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS. Amy Winehouse said about her depression “…yeah, I know I’m black.” But rehab for her was always about getting help for her alcoholic addiction. Perhaps, her dad, Mitch can bring attention to dual diagnoses involving mental illness and substance abuse.
(unveiling of Amy in wax)
After all, it takes an awful lot of denial to see that it may have been more than drugs and alcohol, when the five-time Grammy winner was booed off the stage by paying customers in Belgrade on June 20, 2011.
For more information go to http://www.nami.org
Mental Illnesses Treatment Support & Programs How You Can HelpFind Your Local NAMI NAMIWalks
What is Depression?
Major depression is a serious medical illness affecting 15 million American adults, or approximately 5-8 percent of the adult population in a given year. Unlike normal emotional experiences of sadness, loss or passing mood states, major depression is persistent and can significantly interfere with an individual’s thoughts, behavior, mood, activity and physical health. continue
True Life Story
Person-First by Clarence JordanAs a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, I know how combat situations, as well as other more basic aspects of military life, put unique stressors on those of us who serve as well as our families.
I can say now that I struggled for many years with mental illness … (more)
Women & Depression
Women experience twice the rate of depression as men, regardless of race or ethnic background. Researchers suspect that many factors unique to women’s lives play a role.
For more, visit Women and Depression, NAMI’s collection of resources just for women.
Living with Depression
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Find support, share knowledge, ask questions and meet people who’ve been there.
click here
click hereJoin NAMI today!
When you become a member of NAMI, you become part of America’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of persons living with serious mental illness. And now you can join online.
HELP END THE SILENCE ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS
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“REHAB” Lyrics (Amy Winehouse)
They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘no, no, no’
Yes I’ve been black but when I come back you’ll know know know
I ain’t got the time and if my daddy thinks I’m fine
He’s tried to make me go to rehab but I won’t go go go
I’d rather be at home with ray
I ain’t got seventy days
Cause there’s nothing
There’s nothing you can teach me
That I can’t learn from Mr Hathaway
I didn’t get a lot in class
But I know it don’t come in a shot glass
They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘no, no, no’
Yes I’ve been black but when I come back you’ll know know know
I ain’t got the time and if my daddy thinks I’m fine
He’s tried to make me go to rehab but I won’t go go go
The man said ‘why do you think you here’
I said ‘I got no idea
I’m gonna, I’m gonna lose my baby
so I always keep a bottle near’
He said ‘I just think you’re depressed,
this me, yeah baby, and the rest’
They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘no, no, no’
Yes I’ve been black but when I come back you’ll know know know
I don’t ever wanna drink again
I just ooh I just need a friend
I’m not gonna spend ten weeks
have everyone think I’m on the mend
It’s not just my pride
It’s just ’til these tears have dried
They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘no, no, no’
Yes I’ve been black but when I come back you’ll know know know
I ain’t got the time and if my daddy thinks I’m fine
He’s tried to make me go to rehab but I won’t go go go
Hello world!
May 31, 2011
Welcome… Family2Family4MD is a Blog for those who have taken or are taking NAMI’s free 12-week Family2Family Education course in AA Co.
AS ONE OF your Co-Teachers for F2F, I am so proud of you for wanting to know more about brain disorders. Please do not underestimate your courage. I applaud your willingness to be an UNPAID CAREGIVER for your loved ones when mental health issues arise. AND… I also encourage you to hug yourself often and spend some time just doing nothing but listening to the sounds around you.
BY THE TIME we do start to seek education about the mental behavior of our loved ones (biological problems in the brain), most of us are already exhausted, confused, frustrated, and sad. We were not prepared for this. Our solutions for coping are based on “normal,” rational behavior. In Family2Family classes we learned, however, that mental illness rarely appears suddenly. Even though we probably didn’t recognize the symptoms as they appeared over time, think about what our loved ones have been going through, as they struggle with changing realities.
Because medical care in this country is typically focused on physical ailments, families are forced to fight for adequate care for those with sound bodies, but injured minds. The stigma of mental illness among legislators, professionals, employers, employees, and others often translates into inferior services for and the criminalization of the mentally ill. In essence, the budget cuts for mental health services indicate that the public and policy makers are okay with afflicted families and loved ones providing free mental health care. BUT we are the PUBLIC… so we must not be silent. We must raise our voices and march to our State Houses and legislators to say – it is not okay for us (family members of the mentally affected) to subsidize the national health care system; it is NOT okay for the mental health needs of our loved ones to be met with insufficient services. We have a voice because of NAMI!
SO WELCOME! I’m glad you are here. My intention for this F2F BLOG is to allow you to educate others about what it is like to be around mental illness; we must destigmatize brain disorders. Telling our stories is a way to do that.
Remember our Family2Family motto – YOU CAN”T KNOW WHAT NO ONE HAS TOLD YOU!
Pass the word! AND… let’s get the word out that treatment works and that, in most cases… mental illness is treatable! We need to remind others that the refusal of treatment by those with mental disorders, is itself a sign of the disease itself. It’s neurological, not DENIAL! Who doesn’t want treatment when hit by a car or physically injured in other ways?
As Family Members… we have a lot of educating to do. From the evaluations we get after each F2F class, it’s obvious that you appreciate the FREE education and support programs provided by NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). It’s healthy to give to others… so let the dialogue begin.
Be sure to check out all of the pages at the top of the F2F Blog and the links on the side. And, of course, feel free to leave your suggestions and comments (anonymously, if you prefer). Just click on COMMENTS.
Here are a few questions to get us started.
QUESTION #1: What prompted to you to take F2F; how did you find out about it?
QUESTION #2: How has you life or attitude changed or not changed since F2F?
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