BlueMTexpat

BlueMTexpat's Journal

October 16, 2012

Rethinking the closing of mental health facilities ...

this is yet another issue for which I believe that the Reagan era is largely to blame.

While it is true that the closing of public mental health facilities began under the Carter Administration and perhaps with laudable aims, the fact that dumping mentally ill patients into public schools and community facilities that were ill-prepared to receive them, and then ignored - never thereafter to receive proper funding or training for this onerous responsibility - has exacerbated the problem. I firmly believe that had Carter been re-elected, we would have seen some tweaks. But that was not to be.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/my-son-is-schizophrenic-the-reforms-that-i-worked-for-have-worsened-his-life/2012/10/15/87b74a98-eadd-11e1-b811-09036bcb182b_story.html?hpid=z4

Critical misjudgements

But we legislators in Connecticut and many other states made a series of critical misjudgments.

First, we didn’t understand how poorly prepared the public schools were to educate children with serious mental illnesses.

Second, we didn’t adequately fund community agencies to meet new demands for community mental health services — ultimately forcing our county jails to fill the void.

And third, we didn’t realize how important it would be to create collaborations among educators, primary-care clinicians, mental-health professionals, social-services providers, even members of the criminal justice system, to give people with serious mental illnesses a reasonable chance of living successfully in the community.

During the 25 years since, I’ve experienced firsthand the devastating consequences of these mistakes.

Mr. Gionfriddo finally speaks out. He's very late to the party, but welcome, if he and those like him truly want to ameliorate the situation for the future. But there will be NO improvement under Romney/Ryan and that's for sure.

October 9, 2012

Mitt Romney's Most Dishonest Speech

It seems that with every day that passes, the Mittster sets news markers in outright brazen lying.

Yesterday's so-called speech on foreign policy at VMI was no exception. In fact, Slate's Fred Kaplan touts this speech as the "most dishonest" and thoroughly dissects it.

One takeaway:

It was expected that he would distort President Obama into a caricature of Jimmy Carter. But it was astonishing to watch Romney spin a daydream of himself as some latter-day George Marshall, bringing peace, prosperity, and hope to a chaotic world—this from a man who couldn’t drop in on the London Olympics without alienating our closest ally and turning himself into a transcontinental laughingstock.
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After describing Romney's leading with with the attacks on the Libyan consulate (which some might think that Romney would do well to avoid bringing up at all

) and stating that the "threats have grown so much worse ..." while President Obama does nothing, Kaplan notes:

Let’s pause here. First, these threats are not worsening; in fact, the number of attacks on U.S. embassies is near an all-time low. Second, the spate of attacks, riots, and American flag-burnings, which followed the attacks in Libya and Egypt, ended almost immediately. Romney himself, after recounting the grim events, noted that we’re now seeing “something hopeful”—protests by “tens of thousands of Libyans” against the militants and in support of the American ambassador.

Yet Romney ignored the reasons why the riots subsided and why the Libyan people went after the militants.

This is only the beginning. More at the link: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/10/mitt_romney_foreign_policy_speech_at_the_virginia_military_institute_was_the_most_dishonest_one_he_has_delivered_yet_.single.html

It's a good read and Kaplan is an example of one journalist who is actually doing his job. Good show!

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Gender: Female
Home country: USA
Current location: Switzerland
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:01 PM
Number of posts: 15,368