​CNN
Holmes Had A Psychiatrist Before the Attack (2012)

​CountyOffice.org
What Is The Daubert Standard For Expert Testimony? (2025)

​9 News
How a Colorado murderer bounced from 2 hospitals and a jail cell before the crime (2022)

​Denver Post
Colorado murder victim’s husband sues hospital, says staff should have recognized suspect’s mental illness (2025)

​Val's Take/Conjecture

• It is a HUGE PARADIGM SHIFT to recognize bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and depression as DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY ISSUES.
• Modern Psychiatry and Psychology got a lot wrong and they're still getting a lot wrong -- but they were left to hold down the fort until new evidenced based understandings and treatments were available.

​The authors use some interesting phrasing:​

• ​This new viewpoint "undermines established notions of these conditions as disorders/diseases that may be healed or corrected."
• On the other hand, they talk about the need for innovative treatments to improve quality of life.
• And Neuro-Diverse folks need to be included in Research.

It is very hard to acknowledge and especially hard for Neuro-Diverse people to acknowledge that a large percentage of the Justice-Involved and Homeless populations are Neuro-Diverse. ​

​Funding:   Funding was provided by Harvard University's Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging as part of the Culture Lab Innovation Fund.

​Affiliations

​1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
2Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Mexico State, Toluca de Lerdo, Mexico, Mexico.
3Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

​ABSTRACT

The term “neurodiversity” refers to the natural heterogeneity in human neurological functioning, which includes neurodevelopmental differences and other mental health conditions (e.g., autism spectrum disorder [ASD], attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], dyslexia, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression).

This new viewpoint has significant consequences for the future of medicine, specifically in psychiatry, neurology, and neurodevelopmental medicine, as it undermines established notions of these conditions as disorders/diseases that may be healed or corrected.

The neurodiversity approach, on the other hand, acknowledges these divergences as natural variations, calling for tailored support and interventions that accommodate individual needs.

Neurodiversity could impact current medical perspectives by supporting a shift from pathology to identity.

Rather than focusing on the difficulties associated with a specific ailment, the neurodiversity approach stresses the strengths and distinct perspectives that come with neurodivergent identities.

This shift has significant consequences for research and therapy by fostering the development of innovative treatments aimed at increasing quality of life and improving functional results.

This new perspective advocates including neurodivergent people in all sectors of society, including research, clinical practice, and policymaking, by recognizing, accepting, and integrating natural variances in brain functioning.

In this article, we review the development of the neurodiversity movement and propose “The Neurodiversity Framework in Medicine,” which challenges traditional views by recognizing neurological differences as natural variations, advocating for inclusive, person-centered approaches in healthcare.

​Michelle Yoeh
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

​Val's Take/Conjecture

• The Mental Health Profession is NOT able to address Multi-System Neuro-Immune-Developmental Disorders alone.
• When we think about Paradigm Shifts throughout history such as the Copernican Revolution or Darwinian Revolution ---
  • ​the new understandings themselves as hard won as they were ----
    • ​pale in comparison to what it actually took to modify existing understandings and systems.

​Incorporating:

• Maternal Immune Activation that can turn on PRO-INFLAMMATORY Genes and dysregulate multiple systems of the body
• So that the body will be less able to deal with stress during the lifetime

​When people talk about being PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS, that's not all patients but it is some, what they are talking about in some instances is a Ham-Handed attempt to change DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES that the profession doesn't realize are DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES.

​As nice as mental health professionals generally are, the failure to keep them up to date with science is NOT innocuous.

​Associations of the immune system in aggression traits and the role of microglia as mediators (2024)

​Val's Take

• We need to get Clinicians and the Public more aware of critical research involving the Neuro-Developmental/Psychiatric Continuum of the last 10 years.
• Developmental Issues occurring IN UTERO are not widely known --- even if they are widely discussed in the research.
• Further, Dysregulation of the Brain's INNATE IMMUNE CELLS appear to have far-ranging effects across the lifespan.
• We need to provide the SUPPORT necessary for Behavioral Health to be a competent profession.​

​Gary Clark, Jr.
​Bright Lights

You're gonna know my name by the end of the night --- MICROGLIA​

​Val's Take

• One of the things that happens frequently in Colorado State Government is the creation of a bureaucracy, or office, or navigator system in lieu of MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE:
  • ​Housing or
  • ​Secure Placements
  • ​Etc.

Of course if there are people being stabbed in Downtown Denver --- these administrative fixes are not much of a bargain.​

• A big complicating factor is that Jails are generally financed by the COUNTY and Mental Institutes are financed by the STATE.
• Counties around the country and in Colorado want people with "mental illness" out of their jails because it is a LARGE COST they don't want.

​The Stepping Up Initiative to get people with mental illness out of the jails has been around for awhile --- and there are many stakeholders but most prominent are the COUNTIES.

Denver has tackled the issue of Housing to  an almost  miraculous degree.

BUT not everyone is going to be able to go to SUPPORTIVE HOUSING initially and maybe even --- EVER given current treatments.

The State seems aware of the need to build out the CONTINUUM OF CARE but doesn't know where it will get the money.

​Getting more FEDERAL FUNDING could help.