Does any country deal well with mental illness crises?
Any good systems in place, anywhere? Because it's sure as hell not happening here--at least not for some people I know who are suffering.
I've heard stories, mostly from my friend the child psychologist about the lack of services, the bad pay and horrendous paperwork for doctors willing to take the poorest of patients on state aid. Last week I got pitched into the void and discovered for myself there isn't even a safe place to land for adults with insurance.
I've got panic disorder (doesn't everyone have something?) and was trying out some standard SSRI med--the kind handed out like candy. A couple of days into this new medication and I was sent over an edge I'd never witnessed before hadn't even dreamed of. I ended up lying on the floor, giving myself half hour increments as in "If it's worse in a half hour, I'll call 911"
I didn't want to move because I was afraid I'd go take every pill in the house to stop the horrendous mental whateverthehell that was.
I went cold turkey off the SSRI and am relatively fine. But. What if I'd really reached for a gun or pills to end the pain? The obvious answer is call 911. That's what anyone would say to do, right?
"Thank goodness you didn't call 911," the doctor said. "911 is not equipped for that situation. They don't deal with it well."
Okay, so what should I do? The doctor said he'd have helped, even at midnight (and I thought OB/GYNs have the bad hours)
I'm lucky because I'm an adult, I have the insurance and a number for a doctor who'll help. I'm way, WAY luckier because it turns out I don't have to do anything (for now). I've got my basic sanity back and am out of crisis (well, into boring, normal crisis) And I know I'm really, way, WAY, REALLY lucky because I hear those stories from my psychologist friend [updated to say: not stories of my friend's patients! I mean tales of her absurd paperwork and all the people who need services and don't get them! She's a good, discreet doctor!] and am watching other friends dealing with kids who are severely impaired with mental illness.
And apparently the youngest people really fall into a no man's land with this stuff.
One kid (15) has attempted suicide. The other (10) is dangerous to his siblings. My first response was, of course, get those kids into a hospital. But then I'm told, no, there's nothing out there that will actually help those kids in crisis. They'll be put in with adults, an even more traumatizing event for them both, but especially the little kid. There Is Nothing For Them ..
So these kids live at home, watched by their families as they survive through the kind of crisis that stymies a lot of professionals.
And then there's my fellow-writer friend whose 19 year old daughter who needs some kind of care--not crisis intervention, but she needs some sort of program that'll keeps tabs on her. She refuses to let her mother do the job. There are plenty of programs out there, but she has the added problem of seizures created by some kind of PTSD (I'd never heard of this one before, but it's an official diagnosis)
They've spent a couple of years combing the country, looking for a program that will accept a young woman with bi-polar disorder and who occasionally also seizes. Two years looking. No good results.
Those families are "lucky" because they can still search for options.
My friend the child psychologist is one of the few in the area who'll take the cases paid for by the state. People without cars are willing to take public transportation from several towns away to see her but she still has to turn most of them away.
The kids who need it most--the ones in foster care, the ones who are in dire need of help--aren't getting it.
Those kids aren't going to get the help they need and God help them and all of us because there are so many out there, growing into adults who need mental health care services they're not getting, at least until they land in jail. Oh, not there either.
The poor kids don't get help--that's not news--but neither do the ones who have the money and insurance. There's nothing out there that works.
I wonder if there's anything in another country that would help those kids lead any sort of life. Maybe it's time for the parents to go on a global search and possibly start taking French or Swedish lessons.
Assuming they stay here in the US, what those parents are supposed to do? The rest of us would say "call 911, for God's sake. Take them to the ER!" and they know that will only lead to something more nightmarish.
Any of you know? Really. There has to be a solution for that 19-year-old, right?