Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
I got the impression it was more the nature of the illness. Different professionals were involved at different times, but the quality of the care was dismal throughout. I wonder if mental illnesses are beyond the ability of the NHS to deal with at the moment - we saw lots of other patients in a similar plight.  |
There is very little coverage for mental illness under our private insurance here in the US and the state-run programs were gutted decades ago. Besides, if he were too ill to work, he likely wouldn't have private insurance. If he didn't have family to take care of him he would more likely end up homeless on the streets than in a mental hospital. Of course, even with family it can be difficult to hospitalize an adult. One of my cousins is schizophrenic but not considered ill enough to commit. She went of her meds and ended up homeless despite the fact that her parents had ample money and she had a trust fund. She couldn't keep it together to go pick up her check and her parents had no right to control her. But it's not like there would have necessarily been treatment available for her even if she'd been willing to take it if her parent's weren't wealthy. The city of San Francisco has more homeless than the country of France even though it's only 7 miles on a side and has fewer than a million people. Many of them are mentally ill folks that aren't cared for. I wonder if we can find an example of a system that cares well for its mentally ill.