It's important to consider whether hospitals should be allowed to release patients to the streets. I was recently in the hospital with an 18-year-old man with bipolar disorder. He was so disruptive in his manic state that the hospital discharged him even though he had no place to go. It's not the first time I've seen a hospital discharge a patient to the streets (Mental Illness and Homelessness). It made me wonder if hospitals should be allowed to release patients to the streets.

It's time to reform the mental healthcare system. It's been time for years. While the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations made great strides, all that progress could be lost under the new administration (Mental Health Care [In A Perfect World]). Already, Congress voted to reinstate pre-existing conditions (which prior to the Affordable Care Act many insurance agencies used to refuse to cover an individual with mental illness or refuse to cover mental healthcare). Congress also voted to prevent Medicare from negotiating with drug companies to lower prices. And legislation that would have lowered drug prices was shot down--you may have seen the meme naming which politician voted against it and how much money they've received from pharmaceutical companies. President-elect Donald Trump needs to take action and reform the mental healthcare system.

Do you know how to handle a treatment professional on a power trip? Sometimes the field of mental health draws the wrong people, especially when treatment philosophy is the social control model. I once overheard a nurse say to a patient "You do what we tell you, when we tell you." Another psychiatrist told a patient who made a sarcastic comment about wearing diapers "If that's what you want I can make it happen." The same psychiatrist told me "I can go on the word of a social worker if I want." When a treatment professional is on a power trip, it is important to know how to handle them (What Mental Health Professionals Don’t Know about Clients).

Should incarceration include mental health treatment? My youngest brother scared his wife half to death once. He texted her from work, "We are all okay, but we just got robbed." His budget cell phone deleted the first part of that message, so she spent several hours trying to find out that a man walked into the Petco without a mask, demanded money (no weapon), and left plenty of fingerprints and a superb profile on the CCTV. He got away with $100. We later learned drugs and mental illness were involved (Treating Criminal Justice-Involved Drug Abusers and Addicts). He committed the crime because he was sick. That raises the question, "Should incarceration include mental health treatment?"

We are overdue for a conversation on the need for mental health courts. My friend, Hector Barajas, a U.S. Army veteran, developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of his service in the 82nd Airborne during the Gulf War. He was honorably discharged, but his illness was not acknowledged. In the midst of a flashback, he fired a gun. Although no one was hurt, he was arrested, convicted of a felony, then deported for life--he thought his service made him a citizen, but was misinformed and paid a drastic price. Hector and the estimated 30,000 veterans like him who have been deported largely for crimes committed due to PTSD are the poster children for the need for mental health courts.

There are three things mental health professionals don't know about their clients because of stigma. Sometimes we're lucky and get a mental health professional who understands us, but many times we get a mental health professional who believes myths about mental illness or about mental health consumers. I've met many mental health professionals, and I would like for them all to understand three things: one, we're not children, two, we have an illness and not a character fault, and three, each case is unique.

We need universal healthcare standards. Normally I don't write a post when I'm angry, but today I'm making an exception. A friend of mine is disabled due to a spinal cord injury. She was recently put in a nursing home, with screaming dementia patients, an apathetic social worker, hostile and abusive staff, and she was left to lie in her own feces and urine. When asked why my friend was getting this treatment, a staff member said "Medicaid is not the Cadillac of insurance." This is why we need universal healthcare standards--because if the rich had to be in this situation, things would improve in minutes. We need everyone in the same boat to ensure mental healthcare treatment is not motivated by the bottom line (How To Pay For Mental Health Services). Everyone should receive basic healthcare standards, regardless of insurance or lack thereof.

Do you know how to get ready for a therapy appointment? Therapy, like an appointment for any medical condition, is much more efficient when certain steps are taken. However, since there is still a stigma attached to therapy, people might not know what these steps are. So here are some suggestions on how to get ready for a therapy appointment.

We see signs of how the mental health system suffers, but too often, the mental health system fails with lethal results. We all know that the mental health system fails, but have we ever thought of the results of that failure? In the case of Jamycheal Mitchell, another #BlackLivesMatter death no one is talking about, a $5 theft and subsequent jail stay proved fatal. Once again, the mental health system fails with lethal results.

Do you know how to report abuse of an adult with mental illness? Sadly, I'm currently in this situation. I am living in a short-term group home for disabled adults, and, recently, I heard a staff member yell, "I'm going to punch the next person who says [expletive]." Under Indiana law, I'm obligated to report that. This made me research how to report abuse of an adult with mental illness.