Doing the right thing should not be so difficult
Mental illness doesn't change at the 18th birthday, but laws do. We need to change this, or have a system in place to make certain laws conditional.
Parents are usually the best hope for patients. For patients who do not have, or have already alienated, their families they suffer even more. For those who do, and that is nearly all, the laws and customs need to change.
Allow parents to "do the right thing."
Parents are usually the best hope for patients. For patients who do not have, or have already alienated, their families they suffer even more. For those who do, and that is nearly all, the laws and customs need to change.
Allow parents to "do the right thing."
Great post!
ReplyDeleteI am writing to add this link to an organization I support:
http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/
The Treatment Advocacy Center is focussed on advocating for laws that allow the court to intervene and require treatment for the severely mentally ill.
Many mentally ill people (at any age) are too ill to recognize they need help, let alone to seek it and comply. Their families want to help but they are too often prevented from doing so by our legal system, intended to protect individual rights.
We need better laws and treatment standards. Our society's treatment of the mentally ill is "better than Bedlam" but we still have a very long way to go...
I am a big fan of TAC, too, but worry that they don't include eating disorders in their scope. I've tried to reach out to them unsucessfully on this. I would like to see ALL those with an interest in mental illness work together to get anosognosia recognized, to spread state laws on involuntary outpatient commitment, and other things TAC promotes.
ReplyDelete