I. AM. LIVID.

Please, please share this blog. We HAVE to get the word out. 

WHAT is wrong with our mental health care system?

Too afraid of being sued?

Don't know how to handle extreme behaviors?

Overbooked and low staffed?

I need answers.



During my time as a Coordinator of Youth Ministry at the parish level, I encountered on several occasions students with extremely serious behavior issues -- serious as in a threat to themselves or others. I followed appropriate protocols, reporting to the proper authorities and every channel told me,

"There is nothing we can do until this person actually does something."

You have GOT to be kidding me!

It may be too late!

Now more than ever, teens and young adults are facing the potentially devastating effects of mental illness and addictions. We can play the blame game... lack of father involvement, sexual deviancy resulting from pornography, availability of drugs, family of origin issues, genetics, etc. In the end, though, once the problem exists....

IT IS TIME TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM!

Sorry for all caps. I am definitely yelling.

My ministry focuses heavily on these issues, especially as they stem from self-hatred, insecurity, suicide, and self-harm. While surely God can heal these wounds and certainly has redeemed these wounds on the cross, He has gifted us with mental health study and the ability to seek healing through various therapies and treatments.

But if for whatever justifications, the struggling person is left with, "Take two and call me in the morning" which is LITERALLY what is happening to someone I know right now, we know this system is FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED.

This person was hospitalized, voluntarily seeking help.

Y'all I'm practically bawling right now...

This person had the COURAGE to know they needed help and they went in VOLUNTARILY to be HOSPITALIZED.

And they were put in group therapy and yoga/coping classes.

What. The. Heck.

People can't even share their faith in a small group, how the heck are they going to share their deepest wounds and struggles in a few days in a group of people they just met?

And based off of that, this hospital can make the assumption that because this person has seemed okay for a few days, they are fine to go back to life as usual, with the suggestion that weekly therapy appointments be made.

I am speechless.

No, no I'm not.

I'm livid.

You can't possibly know the extent to which someone needs psychiatric care from a few days.

Read, Columbine the book. Eric and Dylan were masterful manipulators at their weekly appointments because they probably had a serious personality or antisocial disorder which enabled them to not appear the stereotypical "crazy". They wrote in their journals, bragging about how they were able to say what the therapist wanted to hear.

I know that testing is expensive, but a brief interview of family members and close friends should provide enough evidence to determine who needs to go through psychological examinations and who really just needs some talk-therapy sessions and who is just stressed.

Many, many professions require psychological examinations, but here, at a mental health HOSPITAL, someone realizes they need help and comes as a desperate act for care, knowing potentially it could be their only outreach, you had DANG well better take that with the utmost seriousness and exhaust every resource available.

Robin Williams had just gotten out of rehab.

What does that tell you?

We need major, major help in reforming and supporting mental health care professionals to do their jobs and at the very least, refer more extreme patients to the experts who actually CAN help. Not every therapist or hospital is right for every circumstance, but there should be a process of helping that person find the right care for them.


Really mad.

Please Pray.