Hello,

I was wondering if any other doctors are writing about the neglect of 
care of the disabled.

DC has always been a mix of the haves and have nots.  that is true.  
however, I was born in 1968 and have lived/worked in DC and the MD 
suburbs all my life.  it has gotten much worse.

in terms of poverty per se, it is not worse and there is some 
improvement with gentrification of some neighborhoods.

but in terms of treatment of the mentally and physically disabled.  
unfortunately it is far worse than it used to be.  an Ohio study 
documented 600 excess deaths in just four years.

http://thesecretlifeofamanicdepressive.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/mental-illness-and-mortality/


I have scientific training and experience.

if the drugs by themselves were THAT dangerous, and I have been on many 
psychotropic drugs, now I am off all but lithium.

people would be in jail for basically putting out lethal drugs, if they 
were *that* dangerous, as some people fear.


I worked in chemical risk assessment at the Environmental Protection 
Agency for nine years and I was part of the process of reviewing 
chemicals.  not psychotropic drugs.  chemicals used in consumer and 
other products.  and there is no way that drugs with risks like that, 
that are basically lethal to people in their mid-40s, would be approved.

what IS happening, imo, is that people are being given dangerous and 
powerful drugs and not monitored.  and people are generally very ill.  
I lived this.  I was not schizophrenic but - it was sort of like 
bipolar.  instability of mood.  I did not have much trouble with 
hallucinations.

in my view,

DOCTORS HAVE STOPPED LISTENING.

that is the problem that has gotten a lot worse.  in the 1990's, about 
15 years ago, people were "just" losing about 15 years of life, that 
is, the mentally ill were dying 15 years too soon.  now it is 25 years.

yes it is true that mentally ill people often do things wrong.  people 
are usually not that good at handling major illnesses, in the 
near-absence of social support, in a self-pay atmosphere, *almost 
nothing is covered by insurance companies,*

people are usually not that good at handling this well.  and we are 
very ill as well.  that is the truth.

imo,

it is a particular problem in DC b/c the mentally ill are 
disproportionately Black and lower-class.  Me being white, I am an 
exception to this.  that reflects trauma and other bad life 
circumstances as well as 'biological' or whatever, vulnerability.

to me this goes beyond politics.  this is managed care at its worst and 
it is where society is headed if we are not very careful.

I have to say I place the blame on the medical profession and on the 
major religions.  b/c to me the problem, having been ill, is pretense, 
or promises made that are not kept.  and I have seen many Doctors do 
this.  say they will listen but they won't.  and the same for the 
religious leaders who should be drawing attention to this, but are not.

there are some excellent doctors.  I have been lucky enough to find 
several of them.  but it took persistence and a lot of searching.  the 
problem is that mental illness makes it difficult to sustain that level 
of persistence.  there are too many barriers in between people and 
effective treatment.  unfortunately.

I have a degree in library science and I am working to change that.  
I'm working with a couple of doctors and giving suggestions on what has 
and has not helped me and they are using it as appropriate.  I am not 
"speaking out" directly b/c it's hard for me sometimes to know whether 
what I say helps, or not.  sometimes I think I raise awareness and I 
find the doctors already know.  other times they say "well you are sort 
of right but you left out this important factor."

I want to get it right and that's why I'm working with the experts.  
that's what I learned in library science school.  I am not the expert 
here, even though I lived this.  I refer people to the expert.  it's a 
lot easier.

take care,

Mary Katherine


-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 10:36 am
Subject: Re: Pajamas Media >   Sarah Palin's Baby and the Rights of the 
Disabled ?

What kind of comments?

BTW, I worked in DC as an intern one summer and the number of
disenfranchised people living in the parks and streets was a revelation 
to
a kid who'd been sheltered from such things all her life.  I almost 
stepped
on a used syringe needle walking to work from the bus stop across from
MacPherson Park one morning *shudders* and one of my classmates was
murdered there a few years after we graduate.  Very sad -- she was a
brilliant writer who had so much potential.

Point is, DC has always been a mix of haves and have-nots - this is 
nothing
new.

Kat

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