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Post by Shane Lukose on Nov 27, 2015 15:06:28 GMT -4
While there is no surprise there are a lot of mentally ill patients within the prison system, it is shocking to hear that few things are being done to help these people once they are incarcerated and yet again upon their release, it almost seems like they want them to come back. This article raises many concerns all the way from morality to finances, hopefully Sherriff Darts transition center program will gain national attention and result in a solution to the problem we are facing. This article supports Michael Moore’s observation in his documentary Sicko, where he found the best healthcare in the America was in Guantanamo Bay.
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Post by Sulekha Abukar on Nov 27, 2015 19:25:27 GMT -4
It is truly disheartening to read how someone's only choice to attain their necessary medication to function in day to day life is to go back to jail. While in jail, prisoners have access to a bed, to meals, to medication they may require but once they are out in the real world they are all on their own. Not having your medication can be overwhelming but on top of that others are also trying to determine where their next meal is going to come from or where they will be sleeping tonight because it's impossible to find a job. It's time for people in government positions to realize that closing down these mental health clinics well only increase the number of people that go back to jail due to lack of medications and thus more of our tax dollars will go towards those that are imprisoned. If we solely take some of the money that we spend on letting them sit in prison and made them some type of program to help them get started in the real world we would have far less crimes being committed and thus far less people in prison today.
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Post by Nalliene Chavez on Nov 28, 2015 15:23:38 GMT -4
This article depicts one of the biggest issues plaguing our society today, specifically the continuous stigma associated with mental health and the lack of resources allocated to dealing with "mental disease" compared to "physical disease". According to the article, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) estimates that 25-40% of people with mental disease will be incarcerated in their lifetime - this stems mostly from the ignorance the general public has towards mental disease and how commonly it presents. When looking at preventive efforts towards people prone to such issues, we must also understand the need for a greater systematic shift in thinking regarding mental health education, starting at a young age. We, as future healthcare providers, need to be the first line of defense against such general ignorance by doing our best at educating not only our patients but also our communities as well. While we see examples of health fairs providing free blood pressure checks and general health screening, we must also construct such events around the concept of mental health prevention, suicide risk screening and mental disorder screening to avoid such unfortunate circumstances like putting mentally ill patients in jail. Luckily, it seems that Cook County Jail is on a better path of understanding these issues by providing all new incoming correctional officers with 60+ hours of advanced mental health training; this is a great example that should be emulated nationwide.
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Post by Amy Jones on Dec 9, 2015 10:55:51 GMT -4
It should come as no surprise that as the article suggests, "1 in 3" inmates has a mental illness of some kind. Many of the inmates are a product of their impoverished environment. Many studies report that low income families also have mental illness. In fact students who have special education diplomas are not accepted into college programs. They often live on SSI and have no means to support themselves. In an addition to their low income status they also have no direction in life and this leads to depression and boredom. Early health care and intervention are another issue in families who live in poverty. Many times the children in these families do not have access to health care and typically their children attend the poorest performing and underfunded schools in their states.
As the article suggest many of the inmates are there for survival crimes. It would be naive to suggest that all drug users are self medicating, however, I would propose that these children who have been raised in families where mental health played a role in their condition- whether it began with a mom, grandmom or great grandmom-were often exposed to issues in their infancy that taught them ways to survive without an adult. These include finding food when they are hungry to stealing to selling drugs to pay for other items of necessity as well as bartering. It isn't that their knowledge or practices are wrong, just ill directed. The skills that they have mastered could be utilized in amazing capacities if they were given an opportunity, education and mentoring.
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