Monday, May 24, 2004

Jailing the ill
Miami Herald story reprinted at PsycPORT on the "nationwide failure to care for the severely mentally ill, a situation created over the last 40 years by the closing of psychiatric hospitals in Florida and other states. Those institutions -- often bleak warehouses for the "insane" -- were supposed to be replaced by local treatment centers that would get patients functioning in the community. But mental health experts widely agree that the new system never received enough funding and has offered fragmented services at best. With the safety net frayed to threads, untold thousands of people suffering schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression have gone untreated, often homeless and wandering the streets, unable to guide their unruly minds through the straight lines of society." See also Justice System: Jailing A Mental Patient Can Be Expensive from the same source.  
  

Training helps police deal with mentally ill (Illinois)
Story in The Telegraph - "In each of two hours of simulated situations, counselors from Community Counseling Center portrayed people with mental illness, acting as they might when police are called. After each mini-drama, facilitator Elliott Fredland of the Chicago Alternate Policing Strategy program critiqued the officers’ techniques in dealing with the mentally ill person..."  
  

Kane courts want to help mentally ill (Illinois)
Daily Herald story - "Officials at the Kane County courthouse would like to institute a mental health court program, an additional specialty court similar to those addressing drug crimes and domestic violence. But the money and a judge whose courtroom would work part-time with the mentally ill are not available. Though there has been tremendous residential growth in Kane, Kendall and DeKalb counties, which share the 16th Judicial Circuit, the number of judges serving the area has been stagnant for a decade..."