Heavy Mental
Because straight jackets aren't addictive, I guess:
I can only think of two things that may have contributed to this occurrence: a certain demographic in America that would fit the age description and a certain President whose policies regarding the mentally sick were, at the time, seen as little more than a budget expense the American people could do without. Combined, the two events could have produced what we have. But I'm pretty sure that, like most things, there are other contributing factors...like people sacrificing health care so they can send their children to school or buy gas to go to work.
The point is this problem exists...and that it's getting worse.
In other words: we need to stop making Batman villains.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Many more Americans have been using prescription drugs to treat mental illness since 1996, in part because of expanded insurance coverage and greater familiarity with the drugs among primary care doctors, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
They said 73 percent more adults and 50 percent more children are using drugs to treat mental illness than in 1996.
Among adults over 65, use of so-called psychotropic drugs -- which include antidepressants, antipsychotics and Alzheimer's medicines -- doubled between 1996 and 2006.
"What we generally find is there has been an increase in access to care for all populations," said Sherry Glied of Columbia University in New York, whose study appears in the journal Health Affairs.
"Mental health has become much more a part of mainstream medical care," Glied said in a telephone interview.
In 2006, they said 16 percent of adults 65 and older had some form of mental health diagnosis.
I can only think of two things that may have contributed to this occurrence: a certain demographic in America that would fit the age description and a certain President whose policies regarding the mentally sick were, at the time, seen as little more than a budget expense the American people could do without. Combined, the two events could have produced what we have. But I'm pretty sure that, like most things, there are other contributing factors...like people sacrificing health care so they can send their children to school or buy gas to go to work.
The point is this problem exists...and that it's getting worse.
One worrisome finding, Glied said, was that there has been little progress in access to care among people with more serious mental illness. They found treatment for older adults with mental limitations who need help dressing, eating, or bathing fell between 1996 and 2006.
About 7 percent of Americans with serious mental illness wind up in jail or prison every year, the researchers said.
"New policies are desperately needed to reduce the flow of people whose primary problem is a mental disorder into the criminal justice system," wrote Glied and colleague Richard Frank of Harvard Medical School.
In other words: we need to stop making Batman villains.
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