The recent incident in Santa Barbara, Ca. brings a lot of thoughts, to share.  For one, the National Mental Health System is weak and broken in this country.  The laws are a blur, action when needed is far removed.  This serious epidemic continues to escalate right beneath our eyes, and we do nothing.  For example in this recent situation, the cops show up at this guys house before the killings.  Do they search it no, better yet do they access a national gun control manifest to see if he owns guns, no.  Does anybody jump in and put this kid under watch, lock him up, no.  Why because with the screwed up laws in our country you can’t only if suicide attempt is being made.  His father and mother knew he was off, yet did they grab anybody of authority, mental health specifically and raise the awareness for action to take place, no.  Or let’s say they did, could an authority detain and examine this individual, maybe look at his videos and manifest, what about his 3 room mates that were killed?  How does this stuff go on right underneath our noses, and not addressed?  Again no proactive approach to these type of situations, no program in place, no funding to extend the program where it needs to be, including for our veterans who come back from the battlefield, torn and tortured mentally.  Not enough, never to soon, too late!  All of it. 

When is this country going to wake up and realize that there is a problem facing us in every sector, a problem that needs to be aggressively addressed and not handled delicately rather abruptly and swiftly, and without hesitation.  All the victims in this country, lives leveled by murder and torture, some could have been saved if we as a country took Mental Health with the seriousness that it requires.  If more people got involved and actually talked to one another rather than text or emailed or social media.  A convergence directed at those who need help could just save those who have died unnecessarily.

I blame the government Federal, State and Local.  For not spending the money that is needed to put programs and shove awareness in each and every one of our faces.  Too much emphasis on gay, racial or other political agenda.  All of us are affected by this, and might just be an innocent victim someday.  How about a national, and local hotline specifically for these kind of problems.  Rather we have 911 lines for every single incident that happens, no specific for Mental Health problems and I am talking the whole circle of problems that are Mental Health related.

People react to stress differently, we don’t know what goes on inside another’s mind, we don’t know if one will “act out” their twisted thoughts or they are just thoughts.  But in this case, the guy had been posting videos, wrote 140 pages, purchased multiple firearms and lived with 3 roommates.  HELLO, enough signs for someone, or some institution to have taken a hint.

It’s time to lobby for sharing of information between parents, therapists, schools, police, gun sales outlets and others involved when young adults are showing signs of distress. HIPPA laws are well-intentioned but too many young people are falling between the cracks during the time when major mental illness sets in (late teens thru mid twenties.) This, of course, is the age when families and care providers lose the right to discuss the individual’s behaviors among themselves, based on HIPPA laws (unless the patient is willing to sign releases). The current scourge of killings by young people must be addressed through a multi-systems approach.

Two of my own children have mental illnesses. Fortunately, they’ve never had violent tendencies. But when my daughter and son became adults, I suddenly lost the right to advocate for them, which caused a terrible wrench in their treatment and care. I think HIPPA mental health laws should extend to when a youth is 23 or even 25 years old.

A Mothers Determination and Love

Beth Albaneze, CTRS CPRP

I am writing to tell you a story about Alberta and her 42 year old son Eric who has been diagnosed with chronic mental illness. Alberta is an RN at the oncology unit at suburban Hospital in Bethesda Maryland.  Alberta has exhausted her efforts navigating the mental health system. She contacted House Calls to help get her son’s life back. She could not accept that the day program where he had been for over seven years (after many years in a state hospital) was all there was for him. She even wrote the President of the United States.

Alberta described Eric as a popular active high school student, he was on the football team, had a girlfriend and many many friends. His life turned upside down in his senior year of high school when he became depressed which led to his first onset of psychosis. He had been distraught over his girlfriend and suffered a couple of concussions playing football and also during an altercation with aggressive strangers.

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No one ever lives a perfect life and we struggle with our own battles. At times it can overwhelm us and it becomes too late for those who not seek help. Lives are affected and changed forever. The start of my depression is unknown but my life is always in the look for meaning. After graduating college and trouble finding job I became involved in the mental health system. My battle with depression resurfaced as old issued reappeared with my daily clients. I am fortunate enough in my life to have support to have people who love and care for me. They give me strength and courage. With that strength and courage I was able to admit and begin to heal the wounds of depression. I continue now with therapy and continue with medication. There is no stigma in terms of mental disorder and no shame. You can carry on live a normal life. Believe in yourself seek the help you need and receive the help you need. Only thing I can ask as I see the day to day workings of the mental health system is more can be done. With growing violence, bullying, increased suicide rates, and deaths from substances more can be done. Day to day work there is success, but it is little. We are a revolving door for our clients giving them little resources and few chances to survive. Only hope is to continue to return or to continue to fail once they leave the hospital. If anything we need programs for long term hospitalizations.

As a person with many mental and physical issues, I was “verbally discharged” from my primary of MANY years because of 2 comments about the place that were factual.  I was immediately “discharged” , how can this happen when I have been at this office longer than these doctors were and their own P-NP was seeing me and left without telling his patients!  Now, I cannot seem to attain any atty. because everyone is afraid of suing this person who down graded me in front of my husband and called my sister to see if she was as mad at me as I was.  How can a doctor discharge me while undergoing further testing?????????  Are they Gods???

I wish I could be inspirational however, I have been trying to find my mother-in-laws, sister but, because she was homeless in Miami, apparently she’s not worthy of being entered into the FCIC/NCIC system for a report. I have proof of the date she was last seen, checked ME office, shelters, hospitals and Psych wards.  She is still a person homeless or not! Anyone out there know what we can do?

My son was diagnosed with schizophrenia 2 and a half years ago. Then was diagnosed with a brain abscess 6 months later. His thinking has never been clear since that time. It had been a battle to sort out how to help and get the right meds.
Today I was walking into Walgreens and saw a disheveled young man gleefully chugging Listerine with no shoes. I wanted to get him some shoes but when walked into the store I learned he had stolen the mouthwash and the police had been called.
I also know he has a mom or dad who worries intensely about him. They are afraid of just this.
I hope my beautiful boy keeps letting us help him. And people within the system step up to give him the help he so deserves.
Boy, did the guy on the street need that. I am hopeful that other people saw and understand how complex mental illness is and how hard it is to get help.

My mother’s manic depression and alcohol abuse has affected my family tremendously. It has lead to a lot of fighting and turmoil, and has now ultimately lead to her husband, my step-dad, divorcing her. He has been through so much pain and the history of her hurting him is irreversible. For the past 7 months or so, she has been in and out of a mental health facility where she stays for a period of 3 to 5 days at a time. She is on medication, but because of how much alcohol she consumes, I fully believe the medication doesn’t get a chance to do what it is supposed to do for her brain. She is a beautiful mess. Today, I will be visiting her at the facility, where I hope to learn that they will also help her with her alcohol abuse, as they have failed to do so in the past. My job today, is to also make sure we have a set plan/course of action for her because we as a family cannot keep doing this every 2 months or so. The Mental Health system needs to change in that they continue to help the patient after they have left the facility, even if it’s years from now. Bipolar and depression is a lifelong battle, and she needs and army to help her the rest of her life.

One last thing I’d like to add: the Mental Health system also needs to change in that my mother should not have to go through the ER first, where they make her wait an average of 7 hours, so that she can get admitted into the mental health facility. That is just ludicrous. The Mental Health facility should have their own program where she can walk in, get physically checked and admitted in a reasonable amount of time. The ER is the wrong section of the hospital for her, and she becomes worse in those 7 hours they force her to wait.

This is more of an opinion piece than my story but still worth the read if you ask me. “Evil Among Us: Changing the Mental Health Conversation.”

           As a writer with bipolar disorder I’m always looking for opportunities to change the conversation about mental health in our society. I haven’t necessarily always thought this way though. In fact, prior to my diagnosis I viewed and talked about mental health in the same way many still do today. I never really believed those with mental health issues could bring anything to society. I didn’t think they could contribute like everyone else. I discriminated against those with mental health issues because of the negative stigma and stereotypes I held.

            Now that I’m on the other side I’ve more than realized that was the completely wrong perspective to take on mental health. This being the case I set out to try and clear up this common misconception. I did this by trying to change the conversation about mental health by focusing on what contributions go unnoticed within society from us. Especially when talking about art, music, writing and anything else dealing with creativity. However it seems this conversation somehow always gets lost in the dark dialogue about mental health.

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