I just learned from an old co-worker that the children's inpatient mental health unit I used to work at closed last week. The most vulnerable members of our community here in Minneapolis and around the country have lost funding in this sector of health care while virtually every other aspect of health care has become more profitable. It's amazing to me that the general public doesn't realize the cost benefit of keeping children who have been dealt a bad hand in a biological, psychological, or social way that makes them vulnerable to injuring themselves or vulnerable to taking out their frustration or poor social skills out on other children. makes me sick. yeah, let's cut funding to the most vulnerable and ill represented group in our society because there's no f'n money in it...un-f'n-believable.
so, sure, some of these kids are still admitted. but, they're admitted onto the adolescent unit which means fewer adolescent psych beds as well. can you believe that? these kids being on the same unit as teenagers? wow. they were vulnerable enough with kids up to age 12 much less 17!
I know many of you know what population of kids I'm talking about, but some of you don't. The population of kids I'm talking about are the one's who have gone through things that are hard or even impossible to imagine going through...sometimes the stuff that's too gruesome to even put on the nightly news. Some kids have physiological or psych disorders that they have no control over and need to learn how to live with it in a safe place. maybe it's the family, maybe it's their own body, maybe something drastic happened to them. People usually think of adults when they think of mentally ill...well, all adults were once kids! all the murderers, rapists, suicidal people, depressed, manic, the entire gamut of humans out there were once kids! helping them while they're children is pinnacle to a healthy society to avoid as much of the fall-out later on in their lives as we can.
this is a great example of why privatized health care doesn't work for the common good. too bad we can't put a $$ on that reality...then surely there'd be corporate support.
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The same thing happened under Reagan. Defense budget through the roof, social services spending cut. They cut education, closed mental health facilities and began privatizing the construction of prisons. The same tune, different era and under even uglier circumstances. I stand with you in your disgust, Patrick. It is truly shameful.