Economics & Justice of a SYSTEM BROKEN in Multiple Places ---

Healthcare Administration, Legal Administration, Doctors, Lawyers, Social Workers & Admin.& ---- BIG SHORTAGES

Executive Functioning as a HOT TOPIC is moving from YOUTUBE to PRIME TIME COP DRAMAS

Last night I was watching the new crime drama "East New York" about community policing --- and what did they slip in there BUT the "EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING CHALLENGES" of one of the officers --- and he brought it up.

One of the shows my husband got me hooked on before he passed away was "Longmire"--- what to me was particularly interesting about "Longmire" was the MEDICAL LANGUAGE that the characters were using in law enforcement, cowboy gear in Wyoming----

• On the one hand it seemed incongruous --- on the other hand --- it seemed like reality.

Not Judging History --- Not Judging in the Present Moment

• Even though I had a Dad who was a History Major and didn't agree with "judging history" by contemporary standards and at the same time was a proponent of SOCIAL CHANGE . . . I didn't get it.
• I get it now ----in the process of having lived a complicated life in which the KNOWLEDGE I needed for a SMOOTH JOURNEY wasn't there ---
  • and NOW SOME OF THAT MISSING KNOWLEDGE IS THERE --- and it does make a DIFFERENCE.

 

• Overpaid Healthcare Administrators are an EASY TARGET --- but the TRUTH is our UNDERSTANDINGS have MISSED A LOT.

 

• SOCIAL WORKERS and ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT are the most CRITICAL PIECES in MENTAL HEALTH TODAY ---
  • BUT BIG SHORTAGES and OVERLY BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEMS mean you need a lot of eyes to find that "NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK" --
    • Such as Supportive Housing

One of the REASONS why we have these BIG SHORTAGES is we largely have not understood PSYCHIATRIC ISSUES as DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES involving among other things EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING.

Lawyers like Doctors provide that ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT where they can FINANCIALLY JUSTIFY IT ---

• for Doctors it might be Cancer,
• for Lawyers it might be Corporate or in the Street Law Realm --- Personal Injury

When I was working at The Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People (now Disability Law Colorado) ---

• We were often admonished not to get sucked into doing SOCIAL WORK.
• But as one therapist at the St. Francis Center said, "You need a case worker to get a case worker."

I was heartened to see on Colorado's Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing website --- a relatively new complaint form regarding CASE MANAGMENT.

• I hope the purpose of those forms is NOT to SCAPEGOAT some little case manager but to address larger systemic issues.

I do think one possible way to address the BIG SHORTAGES is through a pro bono legal project directed towards INDIVIDUAL OLMSTEAD COMPLAINTS ---

• But many of the attorneys who have the EXPERTISE to handle these issues could not provide the LEVEL of EMOTIONAL and ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT that their clients need to get through the PROCESS.

 

• Peer Advocates and
• Paralegal Support

might solve that.

Ted-Ed
What Makes Something Kafkaesque?

For me what makes "Mental Health" Kafkaesque is being asked to follow "EXPERTS" who aren't very good "EXPERTS" ----

But the SOCIETY is seemingly PARALYZED to Address Legitimate Concerns in the Profession.

I'm posting this video of very sweet neuro-divergent therapist Louise Taylor for the ENDING --- "THE FUTURE IS NEURO-DIVERSE."

That future is already here and to me it is one of the BIG REASONS we're struggling with a MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

We are getting better at WORKING AROUND and ACCOMMODATING Executive Functioning Differences --- to me that is a BIG KEY to staving off BURNOUTS and BREAK-DOWNS ---and maybe you'll have TIME TO ENJOY SOME OF THOSE NEURO-DIVERGENT STRENGTHS.

National Institute of Mental Healh
"IN A TIME OF DISCOVERY"

Mental disorders are among the most complex problems in medicine, with challenges at every level from neurons to neighborhoods.

Yet, we know so little about mechanisms at each level. Too often, we have been guided more by religion than science.

That is, so much of mental health care is based on faith and intuition, not science and evidence.

On the plus side, we put a premium on listening and compassion. We help people to change through understanding.

But not enough of our care has been standardized to a high level of quality, as expected in the rest of medicine.

 ------------Dr. Tom Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health from his October 2014 Blog Atonement 

Science Up