One Flew Over the Prison (Cockoos') Nest

Is this going to become the next best-seller book or movie remake, One Flew over the Prison (Cuckoos')nest? Reading the front page and Viewpoint articles in the newspapers, it seems so. While in the past, we were afraid of admitting our hallucinations and paranoia, for fear of the police or the doctors sending us up-river to the State Psychiatric Hospitals, now we fear, or worse hope for, prison stay, so we can get help. What happened with the “Brain and Mental Health” revolutions, healthcare reforms and religious compassion? Many would like us to believe these “discoveries” and understandings are buried under the unshakable veil of Stigma, ignorance and prejudice of our citizens. However, isn’t the contradictory information presented by those in the Mental Health profession, who advocate one particular view, acting more like a Special Interest Group, more at fault? In public policies issues as diverse as poverty, happiness or brain dysfunction, the “Mental Health” professionals confuse personal believes with science or undisputed knowledge. There are hundredths of school of thoughts of the causes and treatment for these mental health issues. From one extreme who believe that “for every twisted thought there is a twisted molecule”, to those who believe that “psychosis is in the eye of the beholder and a way for society to Label and separate it’s social misfits”. If the professionals are confused and cannot even reach a working consensus, how can you expect the public to open up their wallets and hearths to help with causes that at times appear to go against their social, religious and scientific believes? The time to call all these different disorders and problems “Mental Illness”, or the more recent euphemism “Mental Health” has passed. It should be reserved only for the Legal Spheres, identifying only those people whose severity of illness prevents them from been competent from a legal point of view, no matter what the disorder they suffer, from Schizophrenia to a Brain Tumor. From the public policy point of view, in Florida, many of these medical disorders fall under the rubric of State budget for Children and Family services. Not only are they not equipped to deal with these devastating disorders, but also their approach as social services will not work. This also contributes with the public confusion; are these problems medical, social, or political? No wonder these disorders become problems of homelessness, police and prison systems and not healthcare. The valid argument that these disorders have a significant social, religious, and psychological component could be placed under the perspective that most diseases, from Hypertension to Diabetes, have such. There is much consensus that diet; stress, smoking, or even your personality all contributes to their development or their treatment. Policies instituted decades ago, when we had less knowledge and fewer treatment available, are now obsolete. Concepts like the State Hospital, created by Law to relief the burdens of families then, are now keeping them apart. In our attempts to build protective walls, to separate and protect people with “mental Illness”, we have discovered that we are inside those walls too, as we learn more about neuroscience and medicine. We now recognized milder cases of Diabetes that do not require insulin, but could result in severe complications like stroke, if not treated. The same way we are finding out that early or milder cases of “Mental Illness” which years ago were not diagnosed nor treated, now need early intervention, also like Diabetes, to avoid getting worse. In fact, even the most conservative population’s studies have shown that no family will be spared the suffering of dealing with these problems. This is how we are being caught behind the walls we built. As long as we do not know the exact causes and treatments for these Mental Health issues, we will need the process of common sense to guide us thru the uncertain scientific and social frontiers, and not the one- tract special interest agendas. (I have written a book, The Return of Common Sense, to be published by March/07, addressing in more details these and other issues). Today insurance companies, manage care, government and special interest groups, at times with good intentions work hard in building or embellishing more walls. But when President Reagan, (Mr. Common Sense himself), uttered those famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”, he reminded us that living together and the free exchange of ideas, and not walls, is what will help us the most to find a common solution and improvement in our lives. We have to stop building walls in the name of compassion, confidentiality or special Psychiatric programs. Mr. Healthcare, Mr. President, Mr. Patient, tear down these walls!