Bipolar Disorder Community

anon 19255 i have been listening to / watching the news on various sources and there are a lot of political figures out there wanting to write all kinds of new laws governing the mentally ill. These politicians want to loosen the doctor patient confidentiality laws and want to make it easier for doctors to report patients to the authority's if they even suspect one of there patients is coming close to being dangerous. In some cases they want the new laws to force doctors to report any thing said that might tip off dangerous and violent behavior by there patients in the future and hold the doctors legally accountable if one of there patients turns violent and they did report them to the authorities before hand. This could lead one big witch hunt in my opinion getting a lot of people with mental Illness locked up in mental institutions who may not really need to be there or taking away different rights from them. Just in my area alone both the state and local officials are talking about looking in to the current laws that govern how people with mental illness are being cared for and tighten them so more of the dangerous mentally ill get the help they need before they become a danger to them self or others. I my self do not like these kind of remarks by our law makers it is to easy at that point to go way over board and start over treating / locking up even those who can be controlled with medicine on a out patient basis.
This is my two cents I am interested to know what the rest of you think about this?

Matt

I made a typo in my last post I wanted to say In some cases they want the new laws to force doctors to report any thing said that might tip off dangerous and violent behavior by there patients in the future and hold the doctors legally accountable if one of there patients turns violent and they did not report them to the authorities before hand.
sorry for the mistake


Matt

Good topic Matt,

I think tightening up restrictions on Hollywood so that violence will not be used to entertain the general public in films and TV. will slow the occurence of violence in society.
(Gee I hope I'm right)

I think if they were to make those types of changes many with mental illness and even those who DON'T but may be going through something situational that is temporary, will decide not to seek treatment for fear of retaliation by the government. It's already a taboo kind of thing, even with awareness gaining, those with emotional and mental difficulties find it hard to seek treatment as it is.
I think it's a bad idea and will only serve to isolate individuals struggling even further.

I think this a multi-faceted topic. It's questioning so many issues of mental illness and so many civil rights issues.

With Obama-care we are already facing this situation. A maintained database of medical history is already being compiled. This is a double pronged issue. Do you want your medical records shared from doctor to doctor? Does your gynecologist or podiatrist need to know your mental health history to treat you? This is debatable. My experience? I think it's helpful. A lot of us have issues communicating problems to our physicians. We say we're bipolar and everything we say after is written off as psycho babble sometimes. In other circumstances (as I am finding with my current health plan) it's been advantageous in getting me the immediate care I need. And a recent hospital visit with dh meant he had to, in an emergency situation, attempt to remember all 12 of the medications I am currently taking. He couldn't. And it hindered the emergency medical treatment I should have received. And it was a weekend further complicating gathering that information. So I think that a universal system of medical records IS a good idea.

I think the government is already tracking everything. We gave up a lot of rights with the Patriot Act after 9/11.

Yes, this might hinder mental healthcare, but it is the responsible thing to do. I know I received a bomb threat at work once for a customer who was pissed about his phone bill and lived in the same zipcode we worked in. Did I report it? Heck yes. Did the police track down this man and inspect our building top to bottom? Yes. Thankfully he was either bluffing or hadn't gotten around to doing it yet.

Should a mental health professional expose something like this? It seems the prudent thing to do. Had the young man in Sandy Hood been receiving therapy the masacre might have been prevented. And besides, if you are involuntarily committed, your records are automatically exposed for scrutiny, especially if you non-compliant in your treatment plan. It eventually goes past those 72 hours initially then it goes to court anyway.

And yes, I think the media needs to begin balancing not just the bad that happens in the world but the good as well. It's ridiculous to have to fight the stigma when all the police shows point out mental instability all the time as part of the crime and the news does the same. Where's the good mental health patients who are treatment compliant and contributing to society? Few and far between.

I agree totally on the media thing. In fact that's why I don't work for a magazine or newspaper, even though that was my dream in high school and even studied journalism in college. The tipping point for me was an event that occurred my junior year. Two weeks into the fall semester a freshman was abducted from her night job at Wal-Mart and slain. Of course it caused a media frenzy and every local news outlet swarmed campus, interviewing every person they could find, most of them upper classmen who didn't know the girl. Even I was interviewed. Yep, that was my 10 seconds of fame. Only ONE station and only once, went to her high school and actually talked to the people who really knew the girl. But I guess co-ed brutally slain and left on dirt road makes a better headline than former local high school student does. Plus a stand up in front of the main academic building on campus makes a more dramatic background I guess.

We discussed this for weeks in my media ethics class. Only myself and two other students thought it was wrong to exploit the college. Everyone else said it was the way the business is run these days. And that my friends is why I don't work for a newspaper or magazine these days. Sure I miss the thrill of chasing down a good story and the praise that comes with a job well done. Even won a few awards. But I have a little thing called ethics which is why I probably wouldn't last three weeks in a modern newspaper. As Joseph Pulitzer said, "it's nothing but yellow journalism." Pure and simple.

Its against the Constitution. Since when did the Constitution say "the right to bare arms if your not mentally ill"? It totally breaks the patient confidentiality laws. Also, if Dr.s are supposed to report this, that and the other, then eventually they will report everything in order to keep their license. Just look what has happened to Dr.s giving out *legal* pain meds to patients who needed them? Now its hard as HELL to get pain medication from your Dr.s because the FDA and DEA have made the Dr.s afraid that they will lose their licenses. gggrrrr dont get me started on that one. Also, the Government pretty much keeps track of everything we do, they have their greedy little fingers into everything, taxed us to death, taken away most our rights, our Constitution is full of holes already.

I think it is a shame. If they start changing the laws it will be harder for all of you to have normal time. Anger is something a lot of people take for granted. But it seems to me that all of you have the right to have times when you get angry over legitimate things without every one including doctors and counselors thinking your going to be dangerous to your self or others.
Again it is just my thoughts on the matter.


Matt

Thank you Matt. Its nice to hear that coming from someone who isnt mentally ill.

One more thing. When the pres. was talking about gun control, Smith and Wessons stock started to go up, the entire time he was talking. So the pres. is actually causing a panic and ppl are running out and buying guns and ammo because they are afraid their rights will be taken away. When he first started talking about this, gun stores and even Walmart were running out of guns and ammo. Ppl were buying them up like crazy. Its having the opposite effect.

WOW I have sooooooooooooooooooo much I could say on all of this.
I will say I agree with alot of what you guys have said.
Melly has a lot of my thoughts written though, thanks girl.
So I for now, will play it safe and hit 'submit' hehe

What, chicken Dyanne??? Don't be afraid to express your views here. Ever. It's an open forum after all. Take care and have a nice night.

About the new gun laws. There are a few US states who are giving Obama and his new gun laws, the one finger salute. Az. has always been a right-to-own-a-gun state and Jan Brewer and Joe Arpio (two of my fav. ppl) are trying their best to keep Az. as it always has been.

Hahahaha re the chicken comment, you do know me well eh?

That is so awesome that you have all that talent re journalism, but I do understand and agree with what you mean regarding the down side to it/media in general.

Soooooooooo here's my take.
Mental:
I thought that it was already an obligation of a psychiatrist to report someone who directly states they are going to harm a person or ppl? Its one thing for a pt who says 'sometimes I could just strangle that man" versus "I bought a gun and want to shoot that man".
This is a psy's training, they can tell (hopefully) the difference between venting and true intent.

Yes there should be universal medical database in hospitals or that doctors even have a right to. How many ppl dont tell the drs the truth in order to get pain killers for fun; forget to tell their dr's something that could be very pertinent to their care; lie in general, etc etc. For all patients, not just mental, I think its in the best interest that the docs are on the same page. Also, as Melly mentioned it makes an emerg/hospital visit sooooooo much easier!

2nd Amendment
For those already who have posted, you know that I was born an American & am now a Canadian, dual citizenship. I was raised around guns and me, and most ppl I know have 1 handgun and 1 rifle either for hunting and/or protection. I fully support that "right". Let's be honest though, the world is not what it is today when the 2nd was written. There were not high powered assault weapons available on the internet. btw Why is any weapon available for purchase via internet??? Also, if we put all of our 'reasons' on the constitution, remember, these men HUNG horse theives. So I dont think they intended for a person who kidnaps a child, abuses, molests them to be able to use 'insanity' as a plea. If you hurt a child like that then hell yes you are CRAZY. not insane. crazy and deserve what a horse thief would get at the time of the signing of the constitution.

Guns
1. Most importantly the laws, whatever they are, should be a blanket all the way across the country or it will never work.
2. Complete background check, thats a no brainer.
3. 30 day waiting period. That will eliminate those who buy in the 'heat' of the moment to cause harm. What a diff that may have made w the virginia shooting eh?
4. Registration, re-registration every 3 years. How is it so many 'honest' people can say 'oh i lost it but never reported it' ???? who just loses a gun? smfh
5. Sorry in advance to anyone who owns an assault weapon. but the title says it all. Its not called a 'protection weapon" for a reason. I dont want one in my house, someone breaks in and i go mad w an assault weapon, whatever is left in the house is going to be useless cause I myself just blew it to pieces lol

A lot would say well this only makes it harder for honest people. It may cause a little more effort, but in the long run it will make the enforcement of illeagel guns so so much easier.
NOW, enforce the laws already on the books. If you take a gun to rob a store and kill so one, 'i didnt mean for it to go off' is not a defence. You brought it. period. Tighten punishment for the bad guys when they are caught versus a hand slap. Again though, it should be a blanket punishment. Sure would cut down on the time wasted in the courts.