Rita Is in Jail Again

As a college teacher I am particularly aware of the fact that mental disorders tend to manifest themselves among adolescents and young adults -- particularly under the pressures of college. I received a letter from one of my former students yesterday, Rita, who asked me to get a college classmate to help her again. He is a lawyer who worked to get her out of Rikers Island (our NYC prison) and back into proper medical care. I knew that Rita was back in prison again (for passing bad checks) because he had called me a few days ago to report this and that he could no longer assist her -- he had spent two years at it and had now given up.

Here in NY we closed down most of our mental health facilities with the promise (never fulfilled) that humane sized local ones would replace them. Instead we built some 17-18 new prisons mainly in far away parts of the state where they are most popular as they provide about the only steady employment available to replace exported industrial enterprises -- the last employment hope for many with only high school educations. The upshot is that our upstate legislators where these prisons are located drag their heels on reducing sentences for nonviolent drug crimes and happily go along with the incarceration in our prisons of about 10% who really, as Rita, suffer from mental disorders that are most often not treated well if at all while they are incarcerated. Such individuals are particularly at risk of abuse by hostile guards or fellow prisoners. Rita, who happens to be Orthodox Jewish, had her arm badly fractured when she was last imprisoned. Her illness induces her to bad mouth any and all around her -- she used to use my voice mail to get such impulses out of her system, so I know all too well how she must affect others who do not know her or why she acts so.

The good news is that with proper medical care, some of the Ritas among my current students can get the medication necessary to go on to live productive lives -- some of our best students with such disorders go into college teaching and other comparable careers -- Ted Turner is bi-polar. Lincoln was probably a depressive, etc., etc.

I don't know what to do about Rita. I wrote and told her that my classmate can't help anymore and left a message also on her mother's voice mail. Jean, is another who is homeless. She orders every magazine available for us after we tried to help get her off the streets (she is an NYU grad). She must be out again, as the unordered magazines sent by Jean are filling our mailbox again.

One additional sad fact is that our medical insurance companies do everything in their power to avoid providing adequate medical treatment for people with mental disorders -- despite Congressional efforts to make them do so. Sadly there are millions who could live normal and productive lives with proper care who are not getting it. Only the relative few whose families can afford to assist them are so fortunate.

What a waste. For what it costs NY to keep Rita in jail she and a dozen like her could be getting adequate treatment. So it goes in our 'ownership' society. One gets what one can pay for and the rest of us bear the burden of the real costs in such things as jail time and lost productivity at large.

See the website below for types of mental disorders:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm

Mental Disorders in America

Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 22.1 percent of Americans ages 18 and older—about 1 in 5 adults—suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 1998 U.S. Census residential population estimate, this figure translates to 44.3 million people.2 In addition, 4 of the 10 leading causes of disability in the U.S. and other developed countries are mental disorders—major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.3 Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time.

In the U.S., mental disorders are diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV).4
Depressive Disorders

Depressive disorders encompass major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is included because people with this illness have depressive episodes as well as manic episodes.

* Approximately 18.8 million American adults,5 or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year,1 have a depressive disorder.
* Nearly twice as many women (12.0 percent) as men (6.6 percent) are affected by a depressive disorder each year. These figures translate to 12.4 million women and 6.4 million men in the U.S.5
* Depressive disorders may be appearing earlier in life in people born in recent decades compared to the past.6
* Depressive disorders often co-occur with anxiety disorders and substance abuse.7

Major Depressive Disorder

* Major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and established market economies worldwide.3
* Major depressive disorder affects approximately 9.9 million American adults,5 or about 5.0 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year.1
* Nearly twice as many women (6.5 percent) as men (3.3 percent) suffer from major depressive disorder each year. These figures translate to 6.7 million women and 3.2 million men.5
* While major depressive disorder can develop at any age, the average age at onset is the mid-twenties.4

[snip]
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights

http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/

http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp