Shared Links (weekly) Jan. 19, 2025
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I think Randy probably speaks for quite a few folks dealing with mental health issues. Just don’t expect us to act like the holidays are easy. Because they aren’t. And I suspect that there are 83 million other people who agree. Here’s what I’d really like to see. Just let people do whatever they want,…
That’s a problem. Building more jails isn’t going to solve it. Creating processes that help identify inmates with mental health issues but not the resources to immediately get them into treatment isn’t helping either. The numbers will just get higher. The only thing that will help is getting more resources to the people who need them. But we don’t. I believe the biggest reason we don’t is that we don’t see homeless people with mental health issues who run into legal problems as people who are worth the effort.
Can we ever really, truly, know that a delay in treatment led directly to suicide? Probably not, but this kind of delay is going to be extremely difficult for anyone in the midst of a mental health problem, no matter where it is. “Patients in the city have to wait an average of 135 days…
As Whitney says, and I agree, the real work is in the complexities. That goes for our own mental health issues, healing from abuse, and social issues regarding these topics. We aren’t going to solve the mental health crisis by getting people to exercise more. It might help some people, but that one explanation will not work for everyone. We are all much more complex than that simple “fix” would lead us to believe, but believing it reduces the cognitive load of figuring out how to help millions of individuals.
It’s not official, of course, that his death was a suicide, but we do know that he was suffering from depression, addiction, and perhaps some other mental health issues. Unfortunately the death of Robin Williams serves as yet another painful reminder that mental health issues affect everyone, no matter how famous, successful, or funny. If…