Blog Archives

C-STAT, CMS' 2015 GUIDANCE ON HOUSING RELATED ACTIVITIES & ------OLMSTEAD DATA COLLECTION

5/10/2021

Data Collection is a BIG PART of Successful Olmstead Planning
Perhaps most importantly DATA COLLECTION is CRITICAL to making the case for FUNDING to:
- State Legislatures
- Philanthropic Organizations and Efforts, and
- the FEDS

CMS' 2015 Housing Related Guidance
When CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) came out with this "Informational Bulletin" on "Housing Related Activities" ----- It was a disappointment to many advocates.

There had been a great hope that Medicaid would fund "HOUSING AS HEALTHCARE."
BUT there are IMPORTANT NUGGETS to drive REFORM in this document ---
- FUNDING OF OLMSTEAD ACTIVITIES

We need to confront the FINANCING OF DISABILITY HOUSING in this Country.

Additional Data beyond HUD's yearly POINT-IN-TIME COUNT could help us do that.

One IDEA is to FAVORABLY ADJUST the State's Medicaid Financial Percentage in return for commitments to provide SUPPORTIVE HOUSING (not just the services, but the HOUSING too).

State Waivers List

CMS' 2015 Housing Related Guidance

3. State-level Housing Related Collaborative Activities

Several strategic, collaborative activities to assist in identifying and securing housing resources are:

Developing formal and informal agreements and working relationships with state and local housing and community development agencies to facilitate access to existing and new housing resources.

Participating and contributing to the planning processes of state and local housing and community development agencies, for example, by providing demographic, housing need, and other relevant data for the populations served by the LTSS agencies, among other planning activities.

Working with housing partners to create and identify opportunities for additional housing options for people wishing to transition to community-based housing.

This may include coordinating available housing locator systems and developing and/or coordinating data tracking systems to include housing.

Racism in Psychiatry: Questioning the Expertise of the "EXPERTS"

5/10/2021

New York Times (April 2021): Psychiatry Confronts Its Racist Past, and Tries to Make Amends ----But there is a lot to apologize for — from Reconstruction to today.

Temple Grandin

Psychiatry's confrontation of its racist past is important for a number of reasons --- one of them being that it runs HEAD-LONG into one of the FAULT-LINES in our society --- EXPERTS and LAY PEOPLE.

What we all want to do is just rely on the EXPERT.

Further, addressing errors of "EXPERTS," is a long and time consuming process.

Additionally, I do not think we can expect critical professionals in our society such as Law Enforcement, Teachers and Mental Health Professionals to be some type of SUPER HUMAN that doesn't have any flaws.

A lot of STRENGTHS come with their own WEAKNESSES.

This gets to Temple Grandin's point of the importance of DIFFERENT MINDS and INCLUSION.

Doing that with EXPERTS and LAY PEOPLE is not easy, but we need to do it.

THE DEFINITIONAL ARGUMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH & CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY

5/9/2021

Despite the obvious fun of telling MDs and PhDs that something is flying over their heads --- why are we as a SOCIETY and EXPERTS missing the DEFINITIONAL ARGUMENT in Mental Health and Criminal Justice Policy?
This isn't ROCKET SCIENCE.
This is High School Debate or Introduction to Philosophy.

Yeah, but "Mental Health" isn't High School Debate or Philosophy -- it's Medicine (sort of).

What does the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH think about the Diagnostic Manual and the DEFINITIONAL ASPECTS of Mental Illness?

"The weakness is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure.

"In the rest of medicine, this would be equivalent to creating diagnostic systems based on the nature of chest pain or the quality of fever.

"Indeed, symptom-based diagnosis, once common in other areas of medicine, has been largely replaced in the past half century as we have understood that symptoms alone rarely indicate the best choice of treatment.

"Patients with mental disorders deserve better. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system."

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

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

When NIMH took the POLITICALLY RISKY step of questioning DSM Definitions and Diagnostics in 2013 --- it doesn't appear they were thinking about CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

BUT the problems with these "invalid" definitions and diagnostics are even more pronounced in CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

Further, we have long historical LEGAL TRADITIONS regarding BURDEN OF PROOF and MENS REA (the mental element of crime) ---- those Foundational Principles are showing some significant wear given the MULITITUDE of BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS for Behavior Problems.

A Biological Problem such as Neuro-Inflammation no longer seems to be the EXCEPTION -- but rather the RULE.

BUT that doesn't make anybody less of a risk.

And this is where we get to why our SOCIETY and our EXPERTS are MISSING ---- the Definitional Argument.

THEY ARE NOT "MISSING" IT --- they do understand the CONSEQUENCES and they are rejecting them.

A PUBLIC HEALTH APROACH to CRIMINAL JUSTICE is the PEARL of GREAT PRICE ---- many countries are turning to after years of PAINFUL THINKING.

History of Philosophy with Prof. Footy
Socrates, Knowledge & Ethics

What is "Mental Illness?"
What is a Non-Biological Personality Disorder?

Definition Argument

"The definition argument focuses on clarifying a definition for a controversial term or concept.

"In other words, a definition argument is one that asserts we cannot make clear assertions or possess a clear understanding of an issue until we understand exactly what the terms mean."

Rap Music

5/9/2021

I get the music videos played on Orchid off YouTube.
YouTube recently got rid of its "Trending Category" and replaced it with "Explore."
What was TRENDING on YouTube were a lot of Black Rap Songs and they weren't all KENDRICK LAMAR MASTERPIECES ---- although in one way or another they were problematic reflections of the Society.

The new "EXPLORE" Category has Rap Music --- but it is also now highlighting other music including Country and R&B.

The thing is --- Rap Music was OVERWHELMING the TRENDING Category --- Day after Day, Month after Month, Year after Year.

We're just now trying to address the complexities of "UNCONSCIOUS BIAS."

"UNCONSCIOUS BIAS" seems to be the tip of an ICEBERG of BEHAVIORS that are often below our "CONSCIOUS AWARENESS."

We are SOCIAL ANIMALS and the ECONOMIC and SOCIAL STRUCTURES of our SOCIETIES are not somehow BLISSFULLY IRRELEVANT to Human Behavior.

RELIGION is important because it is often CHALLENGING the SOCIETY to HIGHER VALUES than what are currently operating.

That is important to the health of the society and to individuals within the society.

It can be CATASTROPHIC if Religion makes itself irrelevant out of FEAR of MODERN SCIENCE.

Our Societies aren't perfect and the people within them aren't perfect either ------- author Johann Hari observes we're the first people to try to live ALONE, without TRIBES.

Many of us also live without RELIGION.

If it is time to RE-IMAGINE POLICING, it may be time to RE-IMAGINE RELIGION.

Some of the most popular music in this Country is Rap Music made by Black artists.

There are obscenities and promiscuity and sometimes misogyny and an IN YOUR FACE REJECTION of this Society.

We need to be asking some DIFFERENT QUESTIONS.

The level of PAIN in AMERICAN RAP MUSIC is far beyond stubbing your toe.

RELIGION --- IT HAS A HARD TIME CHANGING --- AND WE STILL NEED IT

5/9/2021

It can sometimes seem like RELIGIONS don't EVOLVE ---- BUT THEY DO EVOLVE.
Most of us aren't practicing Human Sacrifice anymore -- Thank God.

Of course, we are practicing OUR VERSION of HUMAN SACRIFICE.
- That's justified by PROVING THE ELEMENTS of the CRIME.
- That's RATIONAL & LOGICAL, right?

It's RATIONAL & LOGICAL ----- so long as we are FOCUSED on SAFETY and HUMANE TREATMENT --- once we veer into PUNISHMENT we lose our CLOAK of RATIONALITY.

I'm SKEPTICAL about the Mental Health Profession's --- Pro Social Competency Religion and its ability to get us to the PROMISED LAND.
- Ironically, that is based on the Mental Health Profession's failure to sufficiently ground itself to the underlying biology of behavior; and
- It's willingness to SACRIFICE people with "PERSONALITY DISORDERS" --- that they don't like and don't know how to treat.

Religious Historian Karen Armstrong

Faith, Criminal Justice and Bringing Religion in from the Cold

DR. ROBERT SAPOLSKY IS A PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, NEUROLOGY AND NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES, AND NEUROSURGERY @ STANFORD UNIVERSITY:

"You are never really going to understand what is going on if you get it into your head that you're going to be able to explain everything with this is--

the part of the brain

the childhood experience

the hormone

the gene

or the evolutionary mechanism

---That explains everything.

"It doesn't work that way. Instead any behavior is the result of biology that occurred a second ago, hours ago, days ago -- a million years ago."
. . . .

"O000h it's complicated. Well, that's very useful.

"How 'bout, 'OOOh it's complicated and you better be really careful and really cautious before you think you understand the causes of a behavior, especially if it's a behavior you judge harshly.' "
. ------Prof. Robert Sapolsky Stanford

WE'RE NOT LETTING "FOOLISH CONSISTENCY" STAND IN OUR WAY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY

5/9/2021

I updated the Orchid Top 20 for April 2021 --- and one of the top pages for the last couple of years has been Even a Dog Distinguishes Between Being Stumbled Over and Being Kicked.
The page itself was written in 2014 --- but it took awhile to catch on.
It represents one of the CENTRAL INSIGHTS of our ADVOCACY.

EXCEPT --- I like a lot of people THOUGHT/THINK that Neuroscience is on a "COLLISION COURSE" with the Criminal Law.
BUT I did NOT anticipate that the BIG STORY in the 21st Century is that IMMUNOLOGY is on a Collision Course with the Criminal Law.
According to the latest research, the IMMUNE SYSTEM is a KEY PLAYER in:
- Developmental Disability
- Mental Illness, and
- Substance Issues

Val's Take: Hey, I am "little." WATCH IT!

When we realize how "COMPLICATED" something like SUBSTANCE USE is and the PRIMITIVE NATURE of some of our TREATMENTS ------

It shouldn't be that SHOCKING that some of these TREATMENTS are not always SUFFICIENT.

This is where we really must insist on CONSISTENCY.

Further, our inability to deal with this difficult reality is what makes it so hard to reform the Criminal Justice System.

We need to have ALTERNATIVES outside of incarceration IF the treatment doesn't work as well as everyone hoped.

Draft: Innate & Adaptive Immunity in Cognitive Disability

page 21: alcohol use disorder and depression
page 23: alcohol use disorder and PTSD
page 25: alcohol use disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury
page 43: cocaine use
page 55: ADHD and illicit psychostimulants such as methamphetamine

Forward>>

C-STAT, CMS' 2015 GUIDANCE ON HOUSING RELATED ACTIVITIES & ------OLMSTEAD DATA COLLECTION

Racism in Psychiatry: Questioning the Expertise of the "EXPERTS"

THE DEFINITIONAL ARGUMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH & CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY

Rap Music

RELIGION --- IT HAS A HARD TIME CHANGING --- AND WE STILL NEED IT

WE'RE NOT LETTING "FOOLISH CONSISTENCY" STAND IN OUR WAY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY

VAL'S BLOG 2

Val Corzine

Archives

Categories

C-STAT, CMS' 2015 GUIDANCE ON HOUSING RELATED ACTIVITIES & --​----OLMSTEAD DATA COLLECTION

Racism in Psychiatry: Questioning the Expertise of the "EXPERTS"

THE DEFINITIONAL ARGUMENT IN MENTAL HEALTH & CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY

Rap Music

RELIGION --- IT HAS A HARD TIME CHANGING --- AND WE STILL NEED IT

WE'RE NOT LETTING "FOOLISH CONSISTENCY" STAND IN OUR WAY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY

VAL'S BLOG 2​Val Corzine

Archives

Categories

C-STAT, CMS' 2015 GUIDANCE ON HOUSING RELATED ACTIVITIES & ------OLMSTEAD DATA COLLECTION

VAL'S BLOG 2

Val Corzine