Back on the Subject of Solutions

Hey,

So my last few posts have been mainly on things i have been finding in media to help justify the need for reform.

I would like to look back at the Yuli model of reform i wrote about a little bit ago. I would just like to break it down for you, as the actual research documents behind it are extremely dry readings.

So first, it focuses on FACILITY.



No more bunk beds, no more iron cage cribs, no more "hospital", no more white barren walls.
The new facilities built are colorful and inviting. Depending on the severity of the individual's disability, there are a number of different rooming options. There are apartments, single rooms, rooms where you may have a few roommates, etc, but they are all extremely spacious and allow for freedom to go in and out, without it being like a prison cell.

Second, it focuses on THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY.

The facilities are not cut off from the rest of the mainstream world. The local community beside the hospital fully integrates with the patients. The patients are a part of their community. Depending on the individual's disability, there is a real element of freedom. Patients with minor problems can frequent the town as much as they would like without a caretaker. Others are more supervised, but the institution tries to keep open schedules, without rigid conformity and structure.

The patients also receive VOCATIONAL TRAINING.


Another aspect is that the institution truly wants to help its inhabitants gain independence. Providing training in basic jobs helps people to have a sense of responsibility. There are different programs, offering different levels. The most basic being chores around the facility, leading up to actual jobs in the local community based on the individual.


These components, as well as having highly trained staff, have created great success for the institution's rehabilitation rates and the people are thriving from it.

The problems and challenges the institution faces are those that just about every facility faces.
- Lack of sufficient funding
- Turnover rates in staff

But the facility has overcome these challenges and the people supported by it are thriving.

I believe that if other facilities adopted these reform methods, people would be able to thrive. Crazy thought....what if everyone treated everyone like human beings? What a world that would be... community and care coming together to help and benefit those who need the extra support.

Different countries in Asia and Europe have already begun implementing the Yuli Model.Perhaps it is the answer.

Serbia Uncovered

Serbia has recently been in the news a lot.

Investigations about mental institution conditions have uncovered situations like
the pictures. People are being treated like
animals and are severely neglected.

In an earlier post linked a video to a report done by MSNBC Nightly News. The situation is still grave for many of the people affected by mental illness. They have

What has Not Worked

Right now I found some articles about reform failures in the United States (in particularly North Carolina). Millions have been spent on slip-shod attempts at reform, ending in monetary abuse of power and funds.

This is an exerpt:

Harold Carmel, president of the N.C. Psychiatric Association, holds the Easley administration responsible.
"The devil was in the details," Carmel said in an interview. "And they didn't think through all the details. They were overwhelmed by the task. They still are."

The fact is that most reforms only focus on one area. In the North Carolina case, it was a problem with pleasing providers who were in it for profit, not reform.

Real reform begins with REAL care...care in ALL aspects of every position. The staff, the environment, the community, etc. all need to be working for the right reasons.

In another article, entitled The New Freedom Commission Report, it is clear that money will always be an issue when it comes to reform.

Today, with fewer than 57,000 state hospital beds across the country, we have a decentralized "system" in which persons with mental illnesses must rely on multiple and uncoordinated service agencies to meet basic human needs with treatments and services that are essential to their recovery. Meanwhile, the capacity of state mental health agencies to finance and manage mental health services has eroded. Over the past 20 years, per capita spending by state mental health agencies has declined by nearly 10 percent (1). Even the explosive growth in Medicaid is deceptive, because greater amounts of state mental health agencies' budgets are diverted to cover the state Medicaid match, leaving fewer dollars to be managed by the agencies themselves.

Basically the report talks about how funding and budgeting are getting spread thin across too many agencies. Money always tends to be at the root of the issue. Sad isn't it?

Alright y'all,

more to come!

-H

Strong Love

Random entry:

There is a documentary/movie called Strong Love and it is about a couple who got married that were both born with down syndrome. This is a freedom all people should experience. Those trapped in the prisons of mental institutions may never get the chance to be independent. Independence is POSSIBLE. It is attainable. With the proper training, stimulation, support, education, and care, people all over the world can live normal lives. They can even get married, just like this couple did! The whole documentary is about their lives right before and after getting married. They definitely have struggles, but they live and maintain wonderful, independent lives.

Mental Institution Reform

So now thinking about the vast abuse/neglect cases and devastating environments people are forced to live in, I am thinking about solutions? What can be done to reverse the problems? Funding? More promotion for careers in mental health? Breakthrough cures to disorders? I think that if we really want change, we have to look at a combination of reform techniques, creating new versions of the institutions that were once freakshow houses or prison wards where there are friendly iron bars, brutal attendants, and an atmosphere of complete control. Reforms are needed in every aspect. The first aspect of reform that i have been reading about is talking about atmosphere. If it feels like a prison, abuse is more likely to occur. I was just reading a fascinating article in which the Yuli model of reform is being implemented. The largest mental hospital in Taiwan has undergone some serious changes. Once looking like a prison, it is now a picture of colorful stimulation and relaxation. The Yuli model of reform definitely looks promising. The focus is on theraputic community and vocational training. But what i liked most about the article was that it talked about the interaction between the patients and the town. The people were able to be free. In many places, the patients do not have the freedom to live functioning lives. The set-up of the center in Taiwan enabled the patients to safely be able to actually get out, unlike those being locked in rooms and chained to beds for decades at a time.

I will get more info on that later. This is the beginning of an entire segment on finding solutions to the mental institution problem.

A Story from the MDRI

I just read a heartbreaking story about a boy from Paraguay named Jorge. He has autism but was locked away and forced to live in nasty conditions. The story has a happy ending with the MDRI and Paraguay making an agreement to help improve the conditions of state run mental institutions.


ALL over the world there are serious issues with mental institutions. The problems come from lack of funding, education, awareness, and just ignorance of the issue. In the next few posts i want to finish talking about the problems in regards to institutions in particularly and expound upon some ideas and steps already being made toward a solution to the complex problem. There is no one single answer, but I first believe in awareness. Later on i will talk about legislation/reform organizations etc. but right now awareness is something on my mind.


The fact is that people just don't know. Abuses have gone back many many years. Medieval times and before even, abuses have been thought to be the solution. One would think that in modern times we would have a better knowledge of these things, but they are often covered up, as most ugly history is.

But i say that awareness is definitely the first step. Mentally disabled people deserve the same chances in every aspect of their lives that we have. They deserve fair opportunities for jobs, a good education, stimulation and therapy, a safe, clean environment, and love.

Mental institutions in many places worldwide do not provide this. But there are better solutions.

- H

Riley's Birthday Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Tep7jG8MQ



Part of my blog is dedicated to awareness. Does this child look like she is not worthy of life? I don't think so! She has more personality than half the kids today. She is confident and wonderful! This little girl woke up and in 5 seconds is already having SO MUCH FUN.

This is another reason why mental institutions are not good environments. They have no stimulation. They have no place for the child/person to even begin to lead a normal life.

Now i am partial to downsy kids when talking about rights and things, but every person with a mental disorder/disability deserves an equal chance at life.

AJC Article, Sarah Crider

This article springs from a dire situation at a mental institution right here in Georgia. This also happened within the past year.

The Problem Today

Serbia mental institution abuse was the beginning to my initial research on the subject of mental institution abuses. There was a headline about how children and adults were living in these terrible situations without care. They are being treated like animals. This article first caught my attention. I hope it catches yours. Children, innocent children are in these places of torture and abuse. They have no stimulation, no physical contact, they become barabaric because of the neglect. The descriptions of the situations are repulsive.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/21791339#21791339

the above is a link to a video on MSNBC's nightly news. Ann Curry gives a report on the current abuse situations.

In the interview we gain perspective to the issue and an overview of what is happening in that country. The abuse is just devastating to hear about. One would think that we would have an understanding about our fellow human beings, but in that culture, the people are not considered human. With the neglect, they do not act like humans anymore. Treated like criminals, the people are dying and rotting within their institutions.

Now Serbia is just one example. Ignorance i believe is something that Americans struggle with. But in searching, i have found numerous examples of abuse and neglect right here. The facilities do not meet standards set by the government, no one from the government bothers to check on the facilities, there is little funding that is being cut even further, and underpaid, overworked staff that cannot handle everything. They are being pushed to methods of control that mimic those that were discovered in concentration camps.

But sadly the business of the mental health industry is hushed up. Mental illness has always been sort of a taboo subject. No one wants to acknowledge it. People do not like things that deviate from normal. The other weekend i went with my friends out to eat with a 5 year old child who has severe down syndrome. He is pretty much the cutest kid i have ever, and the fact that he is tiny, can't talk, and has a little problem with saliva is just absolutely precious to me. He smiles and giggles and holds my hand. He gives you that look of complete trust, complete honesty, and complete innocence. While we were eating people would pass by our table and give us looks of confusion. People were uncomfortable with the fact that college girls were goggling over this little boy. The looks were not happy ones, like if he would have been born without Downs. And if the looks were not that of discomfort, confusion, or disapproval, they were that of timidness, awkwardness, or they just passed by without any acknowledgment. This is not the first time things like this happen. In high school and other grades, we were almost subconsciously taught to ignore the special ed kids. We were kept completely separate. Now in academics i understand this because they need a different type of stimulation than those without disabilities, but at least in regards to recess and things like that, I feel that if we had been able to interact with them, the stigma of discomfort would not be so prevalent.

I'll get back to more on this later.

Friday Thoughts on Freedom

Today i was thinking about places in the world where knowledge is overwhelmed by fear and superstition. Mental illness has always been a very sketch discussion topic. People always hush it up. But i feel like this topic is extremely important to discuss. I feel like the more people know about it, the better we are able to figure out solutions to crisis areas.

Ignorant Americans we are, however, we tend to downplay our own issues in lieu of other countries. Our situations might not be quite so tortuous, however there is still much neglect and harm done. People should be treated like HUMAN BEINGS....i guess should is the key word though...

I know back when i was ignorant to mental disorders, I thought i was so much better that i could walk past without even acknowledging people who had like down syndrome or something. I always was uneasy around them. Clearly they were not normal, but i felt like DIFFERENT was a bad thing. My world was personally blown when i actually spent time with kids that had mental disorders for the first time.

My bubble space was completely encroached upon with hugs and kisses, I was schooled in break dancing, I laughed so hard i cried, and i discovered that kids with mental illness are pretty much the coolest people EVER. I also met some adults who were equally as awesome.

So why then do people treat them so bad? I think evaluating the problem is part of the solution...dissecting the WHY...ignorance. People who have been so removed from any kind of difference don't like to accept that different is good. SPECIAL is one of the best adjectives when used in the proper sense. Because hanging out with them will CHANGE your life. It changed mine. One moment you are in this selfish shell, and the next you just want to hug on everyone and have a random dance party. The quote "dance like nobody's watching, sing like nobody's listening...etc" reminds me of them. But they actually LIKE the audience. They are some of the most carefree people. It is inspiring to interact with them and learn from them.

the (WHY) link is to a professional blog from a journalist from the Guardian. She has provided many articles to spread awareness of the issues.

There is such neglect for them. When they are admitted to hospitals and institutions the care is substandard. There is also much discrimination, particularly in finding jobs. Unless the disability is truly severe, most can lead normal lives.

I worked with a girl my age at chick fil a over the summer. She could do just about everything that any of us could. She just learned it a little differently because of motor skills impairments. But she was really cool to work with....always positive and full of life! And i am SO glad that chick fil a does not discriminate based on that. Most places of employment may say they are unbiased, but in reality they are. And it has become a normal thing.

Later i am going to get into some specific legislation and avocations, but for now i feel like people just need to see that NORMAL is just depending on how you look at things.

Purpose

So in this blog I would like to discuss awareness of people with mental disabilities, their rights (which are non-existent in parts of the world), and mainly some solutions to the issue of mental institutions. The system is clearly not working. This includes the United States among the rest of the world.