Dear President Bush :: (Predicted) escalating mental illness after Katrina..

Dear President Bush..

Most respectfully...........

Back in the immediate days following Hurricane Katrina, I sent you a very personal, very desperate plea that, even as physical debris cleanup visibly progressed after what could be seen and felt as our nation's most horrible of natural disasters, proactive, conscious, humane, accountable mental health care addressing the aftershock, the post traumatic stress of surviving just such a disaster was paramount.. After an extended deliberation, after some very serious soul searching regarding the possible fallout of the same, as part of that original correspondence, I additionally alluded indirectly, if not near directly, specifically to depression.. to suicide as a very real consequence of the natural disaster at hand at the time..

Within a day or so of that original email to you all, I did see where there was approximately $600,000 in Hurricane Katrina "Emergency Response Grants" publicly earmarked by HHS' SAMHSA for Katrina-related mental health care for the 500,000 Hurricane Katrina survivors.. (Basic math, anyone..?) Admittedly, I am and remain back into survival mode in my own Life and thus "out of the loop" so I do not know what, if anything else was similarly ever earmarked for Hurricane Katrina mental health care specifically..

Silently at that time and even with the desperation through which I typed just hoping to actually be heard, I very consciously realized that I would most likely be viewed as Chickenette Little from Talking Rock for typing to you as one person wearing a particular pair of Shoes since that Monday in August of 1992.. Had no doubt that it would be seen that one person does not a trend make to be considered seriously, but just had to take that chance of opening up to you all at that time..

Prompting this very public plea to you now is that the 15th anniversary of the day Hurricane Andrew ripped through Homestead, Florida, is too rapidly coming down on us again.. And so come back the thoughts of those events just as fresh and green as though they occurred last week..

And, now, just a few moments ago, I found CivilRights.org's Buzz newsletter featuring a USA Today article on the continued escalating of mental health circumstances directly involving survivors of Hurricane Katrina, up to and, yes, including increased tendencies towards suicidal thoughts..

Guess I'm missing something here because a "big surprise" attributed to those overseeing the reported Harvard Medical School Hurricane Katrina study was:

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which typically goes away in a year for most disaster survivors, has increased: 21% have the symptoms vs. 16% in 2006. Common symptoms include the inability to stop thinking about the hurricane, nightmares and emotional numbness.

Because it's taken this fifteen years since Hurricane Andrew, and thus obviously plus, from these Shoes to recover the PTSD effects, my big surprise then becomes that their big surprise even occurred..

Please, to you, President Bush, and to everyone else who can do something about this, I stand strongly by my prediction of a couple of years ago that our nation's communities overall are will be affected if we do not proactively bottom line first and foremost address our nation's mental health care system quality while simultaneously addressing mental health, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) most specifically, with respect to disasters, both by nature and by man..

The disaster that remains of my own Life stands before you most humbly as an example.. Just One.. And Mine pales in comparison to what the Mind can only begin to imagine is Life after Hurricane Katrina for those who did survive all that was that particular disaster.. That's potentially just.. 500,000..

This Party of One once again implores of those with the Keys to Change that, IF our nation does not address the inadequacies of its entire mental health care system and more specifically address post-traumatic stress disorder with respect to disaster, both by nature and man (e.g. the Mississippi River bridge collapse), our nation is in a great big heap of doo for many years to come as there is and will continue to be an increasing rippling effect throughout our entire communities..

Nope, not a clue how we can, like, yesterday turn around the manmade disaster that is our nation's mental health care system such that it actually begins to care about those who walk through its doors.. instead of its bottom line, the almighty greenback.. At this precise moment, I myself am literally continuing to just try to survive.. Do know that beginning by closing one's eyes to one's own sterotypes and preconceptions of folks and instead actually listening to AND hearing those seeking care and assistance is a new beginning.. No time better than the Present to start..

Warning :: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode spoiler ahead..

In closing, saw a great CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Las Vegas episode a couple of nights ago, one entitled Unfriendly Skies that is more than apropos here.. It was the one where a traveler who turned out to have encephalitis that was triggered by an airplane trip was murdered by some five or six of his fellow passengers because his societal overlooked, unacknowledged disability-related actions triggered by the plane, altitude, et al(l) endangered those same passengers..

The last few minutes of the episode concluded with each of the main characters reflecting from the Heart as to why they (likely) would or would not have participated in the mob mentality that ended with the one passenger's death.. Can't recall the exact quote now, but William Petersen's CSI character, Gil Grissom, said something along the lines of, "It took [five] people to kill the passenger. All it would have taken was just one person to have listened to, to have followed through effectively for that man to still be here, for that man to still be alive today.."

Indubitably..

That's what I've been trying desperately to say for as long as these fingertips realized they, too, have a Voice that Counts..

Peace and best wishes..

Cindy Sue from Talking Rock..

Reference - USA Today :: Katrina Victims Struggle Mentally; Marilyn Elias; Thursday, August 16, 2007..

Walking in These Shoes :: Life Sucks..

Can't believe I just said and meant "Lighten up" to another.. To a major website and identifiably as myself along with exactly why because they unknowingly chose just the wrong moment to invade my inbox with a "Why haven't you come to visit us in our vision of 'visit us in this many days or you don't give a D*mn about the World'" pressure email..

That "Lighten up" didn't come without forethought, though.. Been a tough few days in the latest personal evolution since my experience within the doors of community mental health care..

I don't know.. "Lighten up" started with the trip to the grocery store a few days ago, I guess..

Sucks that I've found myself jumping up and down to everyone about being able to buy d*mn hamburger for the first time in several years.. $1.00 a pound a few days ago.. Plain white wrapper.. Greasy as H-e-double-toothpicks.. Yummy as H-e-double-toothpicks, btw..

But I digress already from that..

Life Sucks..

Sucks up the wazoo that that $1.00/pound hamburger throws my already long ago flat broke busted 50, 75-cent a day food budget allowance out the fricking window for months to come from now..

Sucks up the bigger wazoo that $1.00 a pound hamburger has to be the highlight of my day.. Oy, vey..

Sucks the even bigger wazoo that lately it's hard to find like-minded people who Love All Others, Support All Others, would Fight and Lay Down Their Own Lives for Others.. Likemindeds who do not in any way, shape, or form judge someone for how they got to be where they are through the Evolution of Life's Choices Made.. (Desperately, hungrily seeking likeminded Consciences the reason why, btw, that I was even on the aforementioned "web surfer anxious" website to begin with..)

Drum roll, please..

Sucks up the humdinger wazoo of them all that, for all the progress that can be and is being made in the preservation of disability rights and human dignity, somewhere under the radar and just out of reach today, someone has already yet again taken the Life of another because their hardened Heart was so cruel as to be woefully blind to the Value in that beautiful Life they have now irrevocably snuffed..

Yup.. Life Sucks..

And it's that Suck Factor that drives these Fingertips to now shamelessly tell it like it is from these Shoes..

Until it "don't"..

Suck..

Other than that, not much else of major importance going on in this little ol' bleached blonde Mind o' mine today (in case anyone was wondering where the H-e-double-toothpicks I'd dropped off the Edge of the Planet to this Time)..

Cyber hugs.. :wink:

Dear Honorable Representatives :: Regarding Your Hand In Assisted Suicide Legislation..

The answer lies not in legalizing one individual murdering another..

The answer lies in working together towards answerable universal health care..

To do anything else holds you ultimately personally responsible for each and every vulnerable Life subsequently snuffed.

A Hidden Shame :: Undoubtedly triggering material for psych survivors..

Can't ever seem to get beyond, get any further than Alan Judd and Andy Miller's first paragraphs that reflect those three-digit numbers my original website predicted regarding community mental health care, let alone in hospital..

115 reported suspicious deaths..

194 reported cases of physical and sexual abuse..

Got more news for you..

These are only the ones the likes of Andy Miller and Alan Judd had the time and resources to dig like H-e-double-toothpicks for..

These are only the ones who somehow still had something left to come forward with..

These are only the ones who still had someone who believed in them enough to come forward for them..

For those who are teetering, there are many, many out there who will help when you are ready.. There is nothing more empowering than coming forward and speaking out to make it stop for the next guy fixin' to walk through those very same doors..

When you're ready.......

{{ You }}

Calhoun Times: County OKs group for mental health services

My thoughts are with everyone involved as Gordon County, Georgia, takes their next step in providing quality community mental health care for the residents of their county..

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County OKs group for mental health services, 02/20/07
Susan Kirkland, Calhoun Times..

Gordon County residents will soon have county mental health services again as the Board of Commissioners voted to approve a contract with Gordon Mental Health and Addictions.

The board also approved a motion allowing Chairman Alvin Long to officially give Highland Rivers 30 days to vacate the county building that has essentially served as storage since the group restructured, eliminating most of its services in the county.

"It's one of those things that we’ve been working on for months," Long said.

The group could be in the county as early as April 1. It is in the application process to receive Department of Human Resource funding for juveniles who qualify for Medicaid and Medicare. The process for funding for adults could take until November.

However, proprietors Beth Brock and Donna Johnson agreed in the contract to take private pay adults and sliding scale fee for those without insurance.

Long told Brock at the work session that what should have been pretty cut and dry as far as approving the contract became more complicated when some members of the community raised questions about the group’s credentials.

Those concerns were unfounded, said Dottie Jarrett, who has been following the mental health issue since Highland Rivers pulled most of its services out of the county.

MH Press Conference: Georgia State Capitol, Tuesday, January 23, 9:00am..

Related to a previous blog post regarding Andy Miller and Alan Judd's AJC articles, forwarding the following in its latest version to hit my inbox.. Resource thanks go out to my friends and mentors over at disABILITY LINK.. In their words,

This is an opportunity for cross disability advocacy - concern for the "services" people receive in state institutions - whatever their disability label.

Thanks for always being there.. :WINK:

Speaking elsewise most respectfully from these shoes that have been there (else it would never have crossed my mind to even say it, ya know, ya know?): To those who will tokenly stand out in this latest mess that is our state's mental health care system, psychiatric survivors will invariably seek you out as the kind and knowing soul who is saying what they wish they had the stremgth and position to say themselves that very moment, too..

When these sometimes otherwise labeled "consumer survivors" do reach out, answer their phone calls and return their emails, even if it's just to say, "I really don't have an answer for you in your specific case.. You need to take the next step forward by speaking with [these people].." The Life most assuredly in crisis at the other end will 1) appreciate your honesty and integrity and 2) appreciate you are not just in it for the limelight..

Press Conference will be given jointly by the Mental Health Services Coalition--*ALL MENTAL HEALTH-FOCUSED ORGANIZATIONS* (strength in numbers and unity)

Tuesday, 2007-01-23- 9:00am
Senate Press Office
Paul D. Coverdell Leglslative Office Building, Room 201
Atlanta GA State Capitol

Please call, email, write, arm twist or hawg tie your State Senators and Representatives to come.

Nora Lott Haynes
Email: haygreg@aol.com.

Crossposted: Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar.

"A Hidden Shame": AJC Investigation into Georgia Mental Health Care Hospitals..

***HIGH Trigger warning on this lead for consumer or psychiatric survivors***

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PLEASE NOTE: The reporters and those who assist them are putting together a very extensive investigation into Georgia's mental health care hospitals.. In several places, they give readers the opportunity to provide feedback, either through online comment forms or a phone number for one on one contact..

Overwhelming amount of information regarding the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's newest investigation(s) into what they state as "at least 115 patients from Georgia's state psychiatric hospitals who have died under suspicious circumstances during the past five years".. The reporters have presented so much information, it would be taking a huge chance on copyright infringement with respect to reposting from this keyboard..

Theoretically, this series of articles all starts here:

A HIDDEN SHAME: About this series
www.ajc.com/news/content/health/stories/2007/01/04/0107meshabout.html.

Links to the related articles so far are provided on the left of the screen.. You'll most likely need an AJC free, somewhat lengthy online subscription to view while the information is up there..

For my friends who wish to have alternative formats available, you will need to inquire of AJC directly.. The reporters offer the following phone number for those wishing to contact them regarding this series of articles in particular:

404-526-2640

Crossposted at: Georgia Disability Advocates' Calendar.