Posted by NLFAmerica on September 15, 2001, at 11:32:04
Ive already discussed the idea of formally merging psychiatry with Neurology as the only way to truly solve the problem of severe mental illness. I came across this website which I think discusses this problem well. A big part of the problem in mental health is the way in which we think of mental health. In other words that too many people still think of it as a mysterious "psychological" or "emotional" problem when in fact its a brain function or neurological problem ie; a physical illness of the brain and CNS.
The key message I want to carry forward in this weeks newsletter is that which was recently given in a speach by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey on ways to fix the mental health system. "We have to divorce mental health from mental illness."
This message is echoed in the following "Business Week" magazine article on Senator Pete Domenici's efforts and is one of the key reasons for the passing in the USA of a crucial health insurance parity bill. There is a fundamental difference between the rather nebulous concept of "mental health" and serious "mental illness." As Dr. E. Fuller Torrey has said:
"Too much of our resources are being diverted from NBD to cures for "wood allen syndrome," "Alien abduction studies," and social reform issues like ending poverty, curing rascism, etc. In order to facilitate the divorce of biologically based illnesses from social programs: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) should unite in a National Institute for Brain Research. State departments of mental health should be abolished and merged with state departments of health. We should merge academic departments of psychiatry and neurology. And we should prioritize services so the most ill get the best treatment."
If you are ever looking for big ways to help those with mental illness I believe the answer lies here.
If you want to see the website this came from, go here:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/newsletter/newsI13p1.html
NLF of the American Mentally Ill
poster:NLFAmerica
thread:11406
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010915/msgs/11406.html