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Top Comments: Non-Seasonal/Hard To Title This Edition [1]
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Date: 2022-11-28
Many of you will perhaps remember that between Thanksgiving and Christmas I post a series of Seasonal diaries. My intention had been to begin that tonight, but it will instead start next week, for two reasons. The first is trivial… I just could NOT get into the mindset when it’s still November… however, I do have four Mondays in December so, plenty of time! The second is far less trivial and the primary reason…
On Friday night I learned a friend was in the emergency room with her child, now a young adult, because that child was in the middle of a severe mental health crisis. We’ve kept in touch over the weekend while our American health “care” system failed at almost every turn except for keeping her child in a safe place — a locked, guarded room in the ER. It’s now Monday evening and that child is STILL there in that room with no access to a shower or treatment because bureaucracy, insurance issues and a sheer loss of what to me should be the primary goal of health care… CARE for those who need it.
What this young person needs is a bed in an inpatient facility with the facilities and staff to keep them safe, figure out what’s going on, and begin a treatment plan. Instead, they’re being dosed with nonspecific sedatives to calm them while my friend tries to navigate a system that is understaffed, underfunded, and can NOT provide what is needed.
If this were a physical health issue, I am sure they’d already be in a specialist facility getting the care required. When Mr. Brillig had an issue with his leg shortly before our eldest was born, the moment it was determined the care he needed was not available at our local hospital, he was in an ambulance to Mass General, and had surgery within 12 hours. But our system treats mental health care as different.
The other issue that’s complicating things is that this young adult and their family did not have a health care proxy, power of attorney or any other document executed, so when they’ve refused visits, my friend legally has NO recourse to find out information. She’s been stonewalled by the hospital. I understand the regulations, I really do. But it’s frustrating as they cope with this nightmare and myself and other friends try to do what we can knowing it’s primarily being available to listen.
Please hold my friend, her child, and their family in good thought. I am thankful that their home is gun-free or I might be writing an entirely different diary tonight. And keep up the fight to make mental health care no different than physical health care, and to improve ALL of it.
Hop over the fold for tonight’s Tops. And check in on those you love. Don’t ever ignore that gut feeling something’s not right with someone.
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