Saturday, August 16, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Defense donations favored congressmen who back militarized police
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS NEWS August 15, 2014, 2:06 PM

The House of Representatives voted as recently as June on whether or not to keep funding a program that lets the Defense Department give local police forces free military equipment. The members of Congress who voted in favor of the program have received on average 73 percent more in campaign donations in recent years from the defense industry than those that voted against the program, according to an analysis from MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that studies the influence of money in politics.

Leaders in Washington expressed shock this week at images from the Wednesday night protest in Ferguson, Missouri, where largely peaceful demonstrators were met by police forces decked out in combat gear. However, Congress has allowed police forces in Ferguson and around the country to receive billions in military equipment straight from the Defense Department for free.

The House voted in June on an amendment, sponsored by Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., to partially defund the Defense Department program that transfers military equipment to police. The amendment failed by a vote of 62 to 355.

MapLight examined campaign contributions that House members received, from 2011 through 2013, from PACs and individual employees of employers such as Defense aerospace contractors, Defense shipbuilders, Defense Research & Development firms and others.

While members of Congress may now be rethinking the program, the Pentagon confirmed that it still supports giving local police forces military equipment like Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicles (MRAPs), pistols, automatic rifles and flashbang grenades.

"This is a useful program that allows for the reuse of military equipment that otherwise would be disposed of that can be used, again, by law enforcement agencies to serve their citizens," Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters Thursday. "That said, it is up to law enforcement agencies to speak to how and what they gain through this system."

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., who has produced legislation that would put several constraints on the federal program, wrote in March about some of the reasons why the defense industry supports the program.

"By passing off still-good equipment to America's municipal police forces, it allows the defense industry to ask for more funding for more equipment," he wrote in a USA Today op-ed. "It's like donating a relatively new sweater to Goodwill, allowing the purchase of a new, yet unnecessary, sweater from Macy's."




The House of Representatives voted as recently as June on whether or not to keep funding a program that lets the Defense Department give local police forces free military equipment. The members of Congress who voted in favor of the program have received on average 73 percent more in campaign donations in recent years from the defense industry than those that voted against the program, according to an analysis from MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that studies the influence of money in politics..... Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., who has produced legislation that would put several constraints on the federal program, wrote in March about some of the reasons why the defense industry supports the program, 'By passing off still-good equipment to America's municipal police forces, it allows the defense industry to ask for more funding for more equipment," he wrote in a USA Today op-ed. "It's like donating a relatively new sweater to Goodwill, allowing the purchase of a new, yet unnecessary, sweater from Macy's.'”

So here it is. The defense industry is supporting numerous legislators, some more heavily than others, and the lawmakers have loyally voted down the recent Democratic bill to limit the funding for the Pentagon's giveaway. The Pentagon, again involved in the money, is able to request funding for replacements of the equipment that it just gave away before it was necessary. I know the Pentagon will say that it needs the newest technology at all times, but I question that. According to Representative Johnson, the equipment was still in good condition. Besides the threat of building up a police state in the US, this activity is blatantly wasteful. While conservatives are trimming down the budget, they should surely target this Pentagon program. Johnson's bill would not have totally cut the funds off, but merely limited them. It seems to me that these excess weapons should be given to the Kurds right now instead of city police forces. They are begging for weapons and are fighting off a deadly enemy of non-Sunni people in the region. Plus, Isis is going to come after the US next. They need to be defeated.








Rand Paul may be Changing the way Republicans Talk About Race – NBC
BY PERRY BACON JR.
14 Aug 2014

Rand Paul is aggressively trying to change how Republicans talk about race. The big question is whether he will remain alone or others in his party will join him.

Politicians of all stripes have decried Ferguson, Missouri police for a military-style response to protesters that evokes a war zone in the wake of the shooting of an unarmed black man. Paul did something much more controversial and courageous. In an essay published Thursday on TIME Magazine’s website, the Kentucky senator and Tea Party favorite wrote “given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.”

He added, “Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention.”

His direct connection of the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown to race didn’t just differentiate Paul from most white politicians and fellow Republicans, but also President Obama. Paul took a risk, in that much remains unclear about Brown’s death, and the senator’s blunt race talk could be held against him later.

Paul has acknowledged that part of his motivation to address racial issues is political, as Republicans won fewer than 10 percent of black voters in both 2008 and 2012. He is trying to reinvent how Republicans appeal to black voters to improve those numbers.

Paul is not the first Republican to try this. Since African-Americans started overwhelming backing Democrats a generation ago, numerous Republicans have tried to win back the black vote. But as National Journal’s Ron Brownstein wrote in a recent piece, many of those Republicans, like George W. Bush, have sought black voters by emphasizing that African-Americans have common values with Republicans, like attending church often and opposing abortion. Those Republicans have largely refused to move toward positions held by black voters, instead trying to convince African-Americans that their views are in fact more conservative than liberal.




“Paul did something much more controversial and courageous. In an essay published Thursday on TIME Magazine’s website, the Kentucky senator and Tea Party favorite wrote 'given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them.' He added, 'Anyone who thinks that race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention.'... Paul took a risk, in that much remains unclear about Brown’s death, and the senator’s blunt race talk could be held against him later. Paul has acknowledged that part of his motivation to address racial issues is political, as Republicans won fewer than 10 percent of black voters in both 2008 and 2012. He is trying to reinvent how Republicans appeal to black voters to improve those numbers.”

Paul acknowledges that he is trying to improve the likelihood that blacks and Hispanics will vote Republican, and I'm sure, specifically for him. I'm not being a cynic – he has admitted it. In a July 24th USA Today story, Rand and his hopes of a 2016 presidential run are featured. His plans to help blacks and other poverty stricken people are mentioned. He is quoted as saying, 'The great equalizer for people of any background is getting a good education, but the education people are getting is not equal,' Paul said. To change that, state and local governments must embrace alternatives 'allowing more choices, allowing for vouchers, allowing for charter schools, and just sort of admitting that there are good public schools and bad public schools.'” …. In addition to education reform, Paul said his Cincinnati speech will discuss his Senate partnerships with liberal Democrats on legislation that would make criminal records less of an obstacle to restoring the right to vote and getting a job. 'There are a huge amount of felonies that are non-violent, that are drug related and youth related,' he said. 'There ought to be an element of second chances in the law.'.... The senator also will discuss his support for what he calls 'economic freedom zones,' locally based economic development in high-unemployment areas.”





http://www.irishcentral.com/news/first-lady-michelle-obamas-irish-slave-owner-roots-are-revealed-159341955-237511041.html

First Lady Michelle Obama’s Irish slave owner roots
Niall O'Dowd @niallodowd
 August 13,2014

Andrew Shields was Michelle Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather and his family was slave owners.

Michelle Obama’s great-great-great-grandmother Melvinia was a slave who had children by Charles Shields, grandson of Andrew Shields, the Times reveals.

One of those children, Dolphus Shields, born in 1859, was Michelle Obama’s direct ancestor.

It is not known in Ireland where the Shields came from but it was likely Northern Ireland as the family was Protestant and there was considerable Scots Irish emigration to the American south at the time.

This article in The Times is adapted from “American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama” by Rachel L. Swarns, a new book due out this week. Swarns used DNA technology to prove the links.

The book traces dozens of white relatives of Michelle Obama, none of whom knew of their connection through slavery to the First Lady.

Most were shocked to learn the connection and hoped that the Shields-Melvinia relationship was not one of rape and coercion but love.

"You really don’t like to face this kind of thing,” said Mrs. Joan Tribble, whose ancestors owned the First Lady’s great-great-great-grandmother.

“To me, it’s an obvious love story that was hard for the South to accept back then,” said Aliene Shields, a descendant who now lives in South Carolina, pointing to the fact that they had several children together.

Melvinia was just 15 when she gave birth to Dolphus in 1859. She was an illiterate woman who was confined to work in the fields by the Shields family.

The Times first reported the Irish link to Michelle in 2009.

Megan Smolenyak, the same genealogist who discovered that President Obama’s Irish roots go back to Moneygall in County Offaly, has discovered that Michelle Obama's family tree has a large Irish branch.

Smolenyak traced Michelle's heritage back to the young slave girl Melvinia Shields, who was once traded for $475.

Melvinia became the property of Henry Shields in 1852.

Smolenyak said the young girl still haunted her. "It's still jarring to see dollar signs associated with human beings," she said.

Michelle's Irish roots were one of the major findings in Smolenyak's research. Smolenyak spent nine months researching the First Lady's family tree in conjunction with The New York Times.

Smolenyak began the project just before Obama was named president and she said she hoped that her discovery will please the First Lady.

"The vast majority of people are happy when their heritage is just kind of handed to them," she said. "She's got a really rich ancestry. This would be my fantasy: that she's clicking [on the Web site] through all the branches of her family tree, sitting there with Sasha and Malia and Marian Robinson, and I hope they're pleased."

In 2007, Smolenyak found out where in Ireland Obama’s family came from after tracing Obama’s third great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Fulmoth Kearney, who journeyed from Moneygall in County Offaly to the U.S.

Originally published in 2012.



Among most whites today there are few who would be pleased to know that their forebears had had sex with slaves whom they owned. There were no laws against it in the 1800's, but it was something of a scandal. A slave was owned completely and had no say in what happened to them, so they had no defense in such a match, which is why it could be considered rape. Nonetheless, I'm sure there were individuals of both races who had voluntary love matches across the color line. Thomas Jefferson's famous relationship with his slave named Sally Hemmings is an example. She remained a slave until his death, after which his daughter freed her. Jefferson did free all of Sally's sons after training them in employment skills. He also taught them all to play the violin, one of his hobbies.

Mixed marriage, however, was not legal at that time except in certain northern states. As a result, the children were either slaves themselves or freedmen with a small amount of land which they farmed. Such a man was the freedman in the movie “Twelve Years A Slave,” and sometimes a black man was captured as he was and sold in a slave market.

Some of the freedmen went to northern cities by the underground railroad and lived in black settlements. I imagine they were ghettos, but they still produced some middle class people. The pullman porters were all black from the late 1800s, and in the early 20th century they formed the first black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Unfortunately, the southern states during slavery days generally didn't allow slaves to be taught to read. Still, some were taught by kindhearted white people and kept it a secret literally to save their lives. This mass illiteracy has kept black people back even to the present. Generations of erosive poor self esteem leads to a poor prognosis for each new child unless he or she is truly exceptional. They have to perceive what their problem is and make a strong, conscious effort to overcome it. A poor person from a poor and uneducated family (of any color) has a very difficult path to follow to escape those conditions and the attendant self-image.

Still there were famous educated black people even in the 1800's, and from them and others who managed to educate themselves a black middle class emerged in the North. They still exist and from such people come black people who do not have the crippling sense that they are inferior. I can't imagine Michelle Obama considering herself inferior or acting in such a way as to get that label from a fair-minded person. No modern white person should be unhappy to be her relative. The times have changed, thank goodness, bringing us to a much more level playing field now. It's much more true now than in the Jim Crow south of the '50s when I was a child that an individual has a real fighting chance to get to the top – even to the White House. I am proud to have helped elect Obama, and I think Michelle is beautiful and an exemplary citizen. I would be glad to be her relative.




Even With $100 Million, WHO Says It Will Take Months To Control Ebola – NPR
by RICHARD HARRIS
August 15, 2014

When public health officials warn that it's likely to take many months to bring the Ebola outbreak in West Africa under control, it's not because they're facing a single huge challenge.

"If there was just one solid, large chunk we could slice out, we would," says WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander, at the agency's regional coordination center in Conakry, Guinea. "But it's so many little things that add up to the outbreak."

In its attempt to bring the Ebola outbreak under control, The World Health Organization has announced a $100 million dollar plan.

Money is already flowing in, but it turns out that it's much more challenging to respond to the slow burn of an epidemic than to a natural disaster – where sending in rescue teams or delivering water are obvious first steps.

Nonetheless, there are some obvious needs in West Africa — for example, providing a constant supply of protective clothing for the doctors and nurses who risk their lives in makeshift hospitals. WHO is also flying in medical supplies and helping coordinate the logistics of getting food to areas that have been placed into forced isolation.

Neighboring countries are being targeted as well. WHO is helping 11 nations gear up for a possible spread of the epidemic, with offers of training as well as 500 sets of protective gear for each country, Alexander says.

More than half the money that WHO hopes to collect from the international community is supposed to flow to the governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to bolster their teetering health care systems. Additional funds will go to international organizations that provide expertise and supplies.

Another daunting task it to get the right people – and enough of them – to cope with the outbreak. And it's not just doctors and nurses.

"A lot of this response is going to have to be local," says Dr. Trish Perl, chief epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. "You may not be able to walk in and just say, 'OK, who in this village has Ebola?' That may not be something that's culturally acceptable."

Advisers can train local people how to do that critical job — in fact some of those trainers are from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts from the U.S., Europe and other nations in Africa can set up the critical systems needed to track the epidemic — identifying where the active cases are. Many cases of the disease aren't being tracked at all.

"A lot of these [cases] are probably getting logged with paper and pencil, if they're getting logged at all," Perl says. "We don't really know the magnitude of the epidemic because they don't have a well-defined surveillance system in place."

A surveillance system may seem like bean counting while a disease is raging, but Perl says it's actually essential for tracking the disease, identifying flare-ups and ultimately bringing it under control by isolating infected people.

ideally, that system should stay in place after the current outbreak is snuffed out ... because Ebola and other diseases aren't going away.

"Whatever WHO does in a country needs to leave something very substantial behind, so it's not just a matter of doing the same thing time and time again," says Dr. Nils Daulaire, until recently the U.S. representative on the WHO Executive Board.

Even in an emergency, it's important to repair badly broken health care systems, like those in West Africa.

Of course that's more easily said than done. About a decade ago, some West African nations received international assistance to prepare for a possible outbreak of avian flu.

"When avian influenza ended, when the threat went away, these systems atrophied," says Dr. Fred Hartman, who's with a nonprofit called Management Sciences for Health. "Resource-scarce countries have many demands on their resources. Malaria can flare up or cholera, or something else."

So it takes a sustained response, not just one-time aid projects, to strengthen these health care systems — which had been crippled by civil wars and are only gradually being rebuilt.




“Nonetheless, there are some obvious needs in West Africa — for example, providing a constant supply of protective clothing for the doctors and nurses who risk their lives in makeshift hospitals. WHO is also flying in medical supplies and helping coordinate the logistics of getting food to areas that have been placed into forced isolation. Neighboring countries are being targeted as well. WHO is helping 11 nations gear up for a possible spread of the epidemic, with offers of training as well as 500 sets of protective gear for each country, Alexander says.”

Governments, world health organizations, health workers, advisers, and experts in tracking the progress of the epidemic are all needed. “Ideally, that [tracking] system should stay in place after the current outbreak is snuffed out ... because Ebola and other diseases aren't going away.” Africa is no stranger to Ebola, but this epidemic has managed to get out of control, partly due to the degradation of Africa's health care systems. There should be more hospitals already in place, rather than foreign groups setting them up on an emergency basis. Then there is the fact that there are still no vaccine or sera already stockpiled and ready to use, leaving laboratories scrambling to produce more. "'Whatever WHO does in a country needs to leave something very substantial behind, so it's not just a matter of doing the same thing time and time again,' says Dr. Nils Daulaire,”




Left And Right Unite In Criticizing Ferguson Police Response – NPR
by SCOTT HORSLEY
August 15, 2014

The police response to this week's protests in Ferguson, Mo., has been criticized on both sides of the aisle as heavy-handed.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon — a two-term Democrat — ordered an overnight change in police tactics. He brought in state troopers, who walked side-by-side with demonstrators.

"This is a place where people work, go to school, raise their families and go to church. A diverse community. A Missouri community. But lately it's looked more like a war zone, and that's unacceptable," he said at a press conference Thursday.

Missouri's Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill also complained about the police posture in Ferguson earlier this week. There's a history of mistrust between the mostly African-American residents of the St. Louis suburb and its nearly all-white police force. McCaskill says it didn't help when officers responded to protests in camouflage and armored vehicles.

"When police come out and take a stand and wear and have equipment that makes it feel like somehow the people who are protesting are assumed to be the bad guys, I don't think it helps take the tension out of the situation. I think it puts more tension in it," she said.

Some conservatives were also alarmed to see local police departments adopting tactics and tools traditionally used by the military. Since the 1960s, Republicans have been known as the party of law and order. But GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky argued in an essay for Time magazine's website, "there should be a difference between a police response and a military response." His point was echoed by conservative blogger Erick Erickson of RedState.com.

"No one is denying we need strong police forces. But the police force isn't supposed to be a para-military organization," Erickson says.

Missouri State Troopers seemed to take that to heart last night as they marched alongside the protesters rather than ordering them off the streets. Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who's African-American and grew up near Ferguson, steered the new approach, saying the change in tactics is just the beginning.

"There's things that have to happen after this is over to make us all better: training, diversity, having more minority officers in our communities, more women on our police departments. So all of that needs to happen," he said at a press conference Friday.

Some conservatives, on the other hand, suggest a different fix. Erickson, the RedState blogger, sees paramilitary policing as just another symptom of big government run amok.

"Conservatives are concerned with what happened with the IRS and the EPA going after small businesses. They should I think also necessarily be concerned about small government in local communities feeling emboldened to behave badly," he says.

Nixon says his immediate concern is maintaining peace on the streets of Ferguson. Ultimately, though, he says both Missouri and the U.S. will be judged on whether the events this week that touched such a nerve lead to any lasting changes.




"'When police come out and take a stand and wear and have equipment that makes it feel like somehow the people who are protesting are assumed to be the bad guys, I don't think it helps take the tension out of the situation. I think it puts more tension in it,' Sen. Claire McCaskill said.... Since the 1960s, Republicans have been known as the party of law and order. But GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky argued in an essay for Time magazine's website, 'there should be a difference between a police response and a military response.' His point was echoed by conservative blogger Erick Erickson of RedState.com. 'No one is denying we need strong police forces. But the police force isn't supposed to be a para-military organization,' Erickson says.”

“Missouri State Troopers seemed to take that to heart last night as they marched alongside the protesters rather than ordering them off the streets. Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who's African-American and grew up near Ferguson, steered the new approach, saying the change in tactics is just the beginning. 'There's things that have to happen after this is over to make us all better: training, diversity, having more minority officers in our communities, more women on our police departments. So all of that needs to happen,' he said at a press conference Friday.”

"'Conservatives are concerned with what happened with the IRS and the EPA going after small businesses. They should I think also necessarily be concerned about small government in local communities feeling emboldened to behave badly,' said Erick Erickson.” Indeed, small towns in the south have had a reputation as long as I have lived for having corrupt police forces behind whom stand an equally corrupt wealthy and untouchable minority of citizens, going back into the days of Reconstruction. The great Rod Steiger movie “In The Heat Of The Night,” was a great picture of a small southern town. The south not only lost the Civil War, it has carried a load of hatred toward the north and of course toward blacks that still exists today, though it is not as pervasive now. Much of the so-called “conservative” viewpoints are a direct result of this attitude toward blacks and white outsiders such as Carpet Baggers.

Missouri is partly Midwestern, but it is also Southern and was a slave holding state from 1720 to the Emancipation Proclamation, so the old poison of racism is still lively in St Louis, I'm sure. One news article in the last week was about a number of KKK flyers that were delivered in the yards of a St. Louis neighborhood.. Personally, I am ready for this whole thing between blacks and whites to end completely, and the attitudes of many whites toward the part Indian illegal immigrants is just as bad. I wish it would all go away. I don't want to live without contact with people of other cultures, religions and races. Variety enlivens my day. I don't need to be part of a mob to feel secure.









Has Health Law Helped Young People Get Mental Health Treatment? Maybe – NPR
by MAANVI SINGH
August 15, 2014

Mental health issues like depression, anxiety and substance abuse often start in adolescence, then peak in young adulthood. But for young people who don't have steady jobs or stable paychecks, getting help can be tough.

A popular provision of the Affordable Care Act that took effect in 2010 aimed to make it easier for young adults to get access to health care, by allowing them to stay on their parents' insurance until they turn 26.

So, are more young adults getting help with mental health issues because of the provision? Maybe, suggests a study published in the September issue of Health Affairs.

Before 2010, just over 30 percent of young adults with mental health issues said they were getting treatment. And that went up by about 2 percent in the two years after the ACA provision took effect, the study found, based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

That's not much of an increase, and researchers can't say exactly why the rate went up. But, they say, there's evidence that the ACA provision is at least partly responsible.

Once it took effect, uninsured visits to mental health care providers went down by 12.4 percent, while the number of visits paid by private insurance increased by 12.9 percent. And among older adults in the 26-to-35 age group, who weren't affected by the provision, the number seeking care went down.

One thing that didn't change during this time period was the number of young people getting treatment for substance abuse.

"This is a first glimpse — an early look at what's happening," says Brendan Saloner, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who led the study.

We asked Saloner about the work and what's keeping young adults from getting the mental health care they need. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Were you surprised at all by what the study found?

What really surprised us was that the stories were not consistent for substance abuse and mental health treatment. We had expected both mental health and substance abuse treatment to go up after the ACA provision passed.

We're still trying to make sense of why that is.

I think that speaks to the fact that there are probably very different systems in play for mental health and substance abuse. People with substance abuse problems are more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system, in many cases. When people get arrested, do they get care when they're in jail and prison?

Colleges and universities are also places where a lot of young adults with substance use problems are right now. Are they getting the services that they need?

The numbers for mental health care didn't seem to budge that much either.

If you just focus on the trend among young adults, then the uptick is indeed rather modest. But we made the assumption that were it not for the ACA provision, the trends for the young adults would be the same as the trend for the older adults. And that went down — the economy was bottoming out and a lot of people were losing their insurance.

So it's important that young adults were able to maintain some modest improvement while treatment for older adults was going down. The policy can be successful even if it only has a modest effect in improving access.

Even so, only about a third of young adults who need help are actually getting it. Why is that?

That's consistent with what we know from national data. We know that at any point in time, among individuals who screen positive for mental health problems fewer than half of them get any kind of care. And when you look at substance abuse, that number is much lower — around 10 percent.

Some of what's going on is people don't have the resources to pay for treatment.

The Mental Health Parity Act does a lot to make sure the costs for mental health and substance abuse care is on par with the costs for other medical treatments. It was passed in 2008, but it's really starting to be implemented now. Historically, people have had to pay a lot more out of pocket for these treatments.

Even so, copays that might look small to people who are more established and affluent are going to be a real financial burden for a young person who is working part time or who's a student with limited financial resources.

And it's also hard to find treatment providers. We need to have the manpower and womanpower — or rather, physician power — to meet the needs of this diverse population of young adults.
So even though more young adults have access to care now, they're not necessarily seeking treatment for mental issues.

Access to health care can help indirectly. One of the most powerful agents for getting people into mental health treatment is the primary care provider. A young person might go to their doctor just for a physical exam, and then it comes up in the conversation with the doctor that, "Oh by the way, I'm feeling really down lately."

A primary care provider can at least help these patients recognize they could benefit from some treatment, and even refer the patient to a psychiatrist. And better-trained primary care providers have some awareness of mental health issues and try to screen for them.

What would help more young people who need treatment seek it out?

One thing is making sure there's an adequate network of providers who are in health insurance plans. And the other thing is making sure people who have transitory health insurance — like young adults who are using their parents' plans — can maintain continuity with their providers over time. That way people get access to a mental health provider, they can stay with the treatment.

But I think this is something that's going to involve changes within the health insurance system, but it's also going to require a lot of effort even outside the health care system.

There's a lot of stigma. We need to do everything that can be done so people feel less ashamed of saying "I have depression" or "I have an anxiety disorder" or "I have bipolar disorder."




“We know that at any point in time, among individuals who screen positive for mental health problems fewer than half of them get any kind of care. And when you look at substance abuse, that number is much lower — around 10 percent..... So even though more young adults have access to care now, they're not necessarily seeking treatment for mental issues.... So even though more young adults have access to care now, they're not necessarily seeking treatment for mental issues.”

I personally feel that there are only two main blocks to people seeking mental health treatment, though being unable to afford to pay is a problem. First, the patient's own lack of awareness that feeling suicidal really means you have a “bad” mental health problem and should get help. Some people have felt suicidal periodically their whole life, and they accept it as being who they are. Needing a psychiatrist is a hard concept for a proud person to take on. Besides, parents, preachers, peers and teachers are the mirrors for a young person's self-image. If those people are “conservative” and blame the young person (lack of faith is a sin, doing impulsive or embarrassing things means you just need a good whipping, not doing well in school means you're hopeless and not worth the trouble it takes to get through to you.)

The second road block is the “shame” of having a mental problem. It's no wonder that so many people commit suicide or habitually self-medicate using prescription or street drugs and alcohol. Self-medicating works to a certain extent, so they continue doing it. It makes them “happy” until the drug wears off and it's time for more.

A pretty high proportion of people in Alcoholics Anonymous are bipolar, clinically depressed, with somewhat fewer of them being schizophrenic. It does take some mental stability and logical thought to take up and progress in the AA program, which is not a treatment center with antidepressant drugs and professional leadership, but a philosophy and a peer group of fellows with the same problem – positive peer group pressure.

Many depressives after a number of years of fighting their depression on their own through a religion or AA, end up seeking professional help, and luckily there are good treatments available now. When I was young psychiatrists were fond of giving electroshock treatments, which to me is a horror story. Mental health drugs, though once they were too soporific or otherwise made the patient feel unhealthy, they are now mainly very closely tailored to the symptom. For manic episodes there are certain drugs and likewise for depression, for psychosis there are other drugs. They all work by altering the brain chemistry in a helpful way. Research has improved them all considerably without their having side effects like sleepiness or a sense of confusion occurring. Even with a drug, most people need at least a few years of therapy, because there are disordered or very negative thought patterns involved which have often been with the person since their childhood. Therapy can be either in a group or with a personal psychologist. Either way it takes time and effort, but there is a great deal of success now for many patients.

Treatment does cost money, even if you don't go into a treatment center, but most good insurance covers it. One of the better parts of the Affordable Health Care Act is that it mandates the coverage of mental health treatment, which many insurance policies in the past did not cover. In the end it leads to such an improvement in the patient's life that if they keep up their meds and periodic contact with a psychologist, they shouldn't end up trying to commit suicide or spinning off into a manic episode that gets them thrown into jail.

Robin Williams, though he told the press that he was not classified as bipolar, probably was or should have been, because he was unquestionably “manic” in the way his mind worked. Bipolar people are often brilliant in some field – his was comedy. He also never quite conquered his alcoholism and had just recently been told that he had the beginnings of Parkinson's Disease. I suspect he did not choose to go to AA, either, which would have given him a very supportive community of peers, but would have required “surrender” and asking for help. There is a great resistance among many people to joining AA – the “shame” of it, the feeling of personal weakness. Eventually you find out that the necessary “acceptance” of your alcoholism will put you on a path toward improved ways of thinking, such as calling a friend to talk about how you're feeling if you are having a strong desire to drink. Personally it was the best thing I ever did, along with getting some antidepressant medication and therapy. If you can conquer depression or addiction you can have a very good life afterward. My psychologist told me that recovered alcoholics are one of the strongest personality types in existence. I feel honored.