Fight for Mental Health Care for All!

[I vividly recall the time that I was called upon to debate Carl Cohen, a fellow philosopher then on the board of the ACLU, on whether the some 300,000 veterans who had been tossed out of the military with dishonorable discharges following their service in Viet Nam should be amnestied (and thereby granted veterans' benefits, particularly medical follow up on what had become for many serious drug addictions picked up in Viet Nam -- what we might describe as 'self-medication' for post-traumatic stress which some reports indicate is debilitating as many as 1/3 of our first Gulf War veterans).

Cohen was for letting the punishments stay in place -- most of those discharged had committed minor infractions consisting of such things as disobeying an order or striking a superior. They had mainly been teens drafted from the 'lower classes', as college and graduate students had been exempted from the draft until 1970, which then stimulated the responses to the war which ended it. Cohen most recently spearheaded the attack (supported by the Bush administration) on affirmative action at the University of Michigan :

http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/97/Fal97/mt10f97.html

Stepping back from the plight of veterans "shell shocked" by WW1, similarly disabled by WW2, the Korean and Viet Nam wars, and now returning with post-traumatic stress from Afghanistan and Iraq in terribly abundant numbers, our American medical insurance programs dodge and weave generally to avoid providing equal treatment (say, the equivalent of that for diabetes) for stressed out persons, suffering from a variety of eminently treatable mental disorders ranging from the most serious to lesser varieties. I see this with my students -- some of whom prosper with treatment and others who are cut off from it and have their futures devastated by the lack of medications and minimal supervision by a prescribing psychiatrist that could allow them to live not just viable but some of the most talented of lives -- there are many Virginia Woolf's among us whom I have come to know personally:

http://classiclit.about.com/cs/productreviews/fr/aa_measure.htm

I recall asking one of my brilliant students heading on to graduate studies in psychology (for whom I was writing a recommendation) where he would be without his medications? He responded, "wondering around in the same schizophrenic haze that I was in for 10 years in the islands before I migrated to the States and got proper medical treatment." Stress for young people is what usually triggers such conditions at about college (or draftable) age. I sometimes visit my students when I can in mental health units which usually take about two weeks to restore them to normality after breakdowns. Follow up care then becomes essential and allows an entirely normal and productive life -- if made available! The alternatives are all too often suicide or prison where approximately 10% of the populations are (needlessly) mentally ill!

The bottom line here is that one of the huge groups of Americans that we are seeing emerge from the travails of our stressful modern culture are those who need decent medical assistance to get their lives back in order. The following report is of one NYC group fighting to achieve such in the face of still archaic public attitudes towards mental illnesses and lack of awareness of the new and effective means that we have developed to treat it.

P.S. The ACLU board voted almost unanimously back then for amnesty of our walking wounded from Viet Nam. The U.S. Military and Congress left these victims of a terrible war to fend for themselves. You may encounter their remnants daily as the homeless wondering our streets in search of funds to maintain their drug habits. Many spent time subsequently in prison in pursuit of same; most died young. Ed Kent]

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REMINDER: Tues, May 24, 7:30pm: "How Can a National Health Program Bring
Sanity Into Mental Care?" a forum with Marianne Jackson, PhD and Peter
Steinglass, MD. Details at the end of this message.

Dear Members and Friends of Physicians for a National Health Program,

PNHP- NY Metro Chapter is holding it's annual mid-year fundraising party
on Saturday, June 4, 7-11pm at the Community Church of New York, 40 East
35th Street in Manhattan. It will be a special opportunity to hear a
timely and topical cabaret musical comedy about the health care
situation in country ("Damaged Care") with Drs. Greg LaGana and Barry
Levy, as well as to party with PNHP friends and colleagues. It will also
help raise much-needed funds for the local chapter. (The suggested
donation is $150, or whatever people can afford--especially students and
house staff.)

By now you should have received your invitation in the mail. We need
your help in contacting our membership and friends to remind them to
send in their reservations. Starting about May 20 we will be calling
those who have not yet responded to the invitation. If you can help by
making some of these calls, please contact Joanne Landy at 212-666-4001
or send the form below to jlandy@igc.org. Also, please invite your
friends and colleagues to come. Let Joanne know the names and addresses
of people to whom she should send invitations, mentioning your name.

Finally, we are in search of a d.j. to donate his or her services so
that we can have some dancing. If you know of a potential volunteer d.j,
please tell us!
Thanks for helping to make this event a success!
Jim and Joanne
Jim Cone, MD - Member of the Board
Joanne Landy, MPH-Executive Director
PNHP-NY Metro Chapter
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - (If you have trouble filling in the form, just send the information in a
fresh email or fax it to 212-866-5847)
____I will be mailing in my own reservation
____I plan to bring _____(how many) guests
____Yes, I can make calls inviting people to the party
____Yes, I know a potential d.j._______________________
____Please send invitations to the following people, mentioning my name
(list names and addresses):
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
YOUR NAME_________________________________
COMMENT___________________________________


REMINDER: Tues, May 24, 7:30pm: "How Can a National Health Program Bring
Sanity Into Mental Care?" with Marianne Jackson, PhD and Peter
Steinglass, MD. Beth Israel Medical Center, Phillips Ambulatory Care
Center, 10 Union Square East (between 14th and 15th Streets). Second
Floor Lecture Hall, Admission Free. Sponsored by Physicians For A
National Health Program, NY Metro Chapter, Co-sponsors, Metro New York
Health Care For All Campaign, Public Health Association of New York
City, American Medical Students Assn., Region 2.